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Striving for peace: a world without borders

Date 2/27/2003 12:00 AM | Topic: News

Roughly 100 Luther students attended the "Striving for Peace: A World Without Borders" fifteenth annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum this past weekend. Students learned about the changes and challenges of international politics today.

Each year, an annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum has been hosted on a rotating basis by five Evangelical Lutheran Church in America colleges of Scandinavian heritage in the Upper Midwest: Augsburg (Minneapolis), Augustana (Sioux Falls), Luther (Decorah), St. Olaf (Northfield), and Concordia (Moorhead), where it was held this year.

This annual forum is held in cooperation with the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. The forums were established in order to provide opportunities for Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars and the general public to take part in a dialogue on the underlying causes and manifestations of conflict and war in modern society and on the dynamics of peacemaking.

Attendees participated in conversations that focused on answering the following questions: The U.N. charter permits only defensive wars, so how does U.S. policy affect the work of the world's peacekeepers? Do universal values exist that define basic human rights? What means of intervention are permissible, and who will make such decisions? Do we risk a system in which those who possess military power make these decisions for the entire world in accordance with only their own particular values and interests? At what point is a state's right to sovereignty diminished?

The keynote speaker was Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, U.N. Undersecretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Other speakers included Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who served as chief negotiator for the historic 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia and former Vice President Walter Mondale, whose extensive experience in diplomacy included a stint as U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Other dignitaries scheduled included Geir Lundestad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Norway and secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; and Knut Vollebæk, Norwegian ambassador to the United States.

"We are honored to bring such distinguished scholars and diplomats to our campus for this important event," said Concordia College President Thomas Thomsen. "Given the escalating global tension we face today, the timing for the Nobel Peace Prize Forum is especially appropriate. We look forward to engaging the community in thought-provoking dialogue that is sure to offer poignant perspectives on the cause of peace."

After the speakers' conclusions, Luther students and other participants were given an open forum to direct questions pertaining to statements made earlier or relating to the theme in general. These included globalization, the role of religion and environmental concerns. However, these items were overshadowed by questions of war.

Due to his experience with the United Nations, speaker Richard Holbrooke was the target of most of the questions that regarded the legitimacy of war. He touched both sides objectively gaining a divided crowd approval that shifted intermittently. He spoke from an international political standpoint as well as analytically about the U.N. Resolution.

"He would make a point and anti-war participants would give him a standing ovation, then two minutes later, he would make another, and the same people would sit silently while others were applauding," said one Luther student. "The crowd was divided. That made for good discussion."

Other highlights of the forum included seminars and workshops that took a more focused approach to peace and general welfare, the premiere choral performance of "Memorial (September Morning)," a commemorative piece commissioned to Concordia's Dr. Rene Clausen for the American Choral Directors Association Convention in New York and an international dinner featuring foods from around the globe.

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Gretchen Springer
Features Editor

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