The Berlin Peace Innovation Lab got off to a great start on May 23rd.
On a sunny afternoon local movers and shakers met up to get introduced to peace innovation. The local founder, Anne Kjær Riechert, warmly welcomed the audience and gave a short presentation describing the future plans for the Berlin Peace Innovation Lab. Hereafter, event partner Dr. Joana Breidenbach, director of Betterplace Lab, gave a short introduction to their Continue reading
This is the last in a series of articles on Capital Paul K. Chappell.
Peace v War
Paul argues that peace requires many of the same skills as war and is can be an effective replacement for war, if only signs of an upcoming war are caught and the mindset can be reversed. War CAN be prevented. The problem with war, Paul Chappell says, is “War waits until it’s too late.”
War has many warning signs – hopelessness, lack of opportunity, lack of communication, and poverty. By stopping these before they occur with antecedents to peace, war will become a relic of history.
This is the second in a series on Captain Paul K. Chappell.
Paul says the turning point of his thinking came with what he learned at West Point. The truth about modern warfare is that it is about winning hearts and minds, not killing the most people. Modern technology, such as the Internet, mass media, cell phones and YouTube, has forced war to evolve. Since the hearts and minds can be won through technology, wars are fought on CNN, Fox News and Al Jazeera as much as they are in battle. These technologies can be used to fuel a war, or they can be used to win hearts and minds without the battle.
Captain Paul K. Chappell believes that war is not inevitable and peace is possible. Having graduated from West Point in 2002 and served in Baghdad during 2006 and 2007, he knows the in’s and out’s of war. With this experience he decided to start thinking about the future of war and peace. He looked at the natural instincts for war or peace and came to the conclusion that not only is war unnatural, it is also unnecessary. We here at the Peace Innovation Lab were lucky enough to sit down with him for lunch and have a discussion, as well as listen to his talk on campus last night. He spoke about a variety of ideas that he connected together to promote the idea that peace is possible.