- By Jason McBride
With an endless array of devices and platforms connecting us to the world, there have never been more ways to communicate. Yet many people feel increasingly disconnected from their neighbours, communities and even their own families. In an era defined by arguments, algorithms, and instant reactions, one of the most effective tools for building peace is also one of the oldest: conversation.
Nearly 70 years ago, former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson accepted Canada’s first and only Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping resolve the Suez Crisis and establishing the first United Nations peacekeeping force. Reflecting on his diplomatic experience, Pearson offered an observation that feels remarkably relevant today:
“How can there be peace without people understanding each other, and how can this be if they don’t know each other?”
The insight is simple, but profound. Peace does not begin with agreement. It begins with understanding.
Too often, our conversations have become performative, and our online discussion are asynchronous monologues masquerading as dialogue. We listen for weaknesses rather than meaning, prepare rebuttals before someone has finished speaking, and measure success by whether we changed a mind rather than potentially changing our own. Genuine dialogue requires something different: curiosity, humility, and a willingness to consider that another person’s experience may contain a truth we do not yet understand.
Lester B. Pearson demonstrated this principle during the Suez Crisis. He did not resolve a complex international conflict by demanding that every party adopt the same perspective. He first sought to understand the perspectives, interests, and concerns of all involved. Only then could progress become possible.
That same idea sits at the heart of the United World Colleges movement. At Pearson College UWC on Vancouver Island, 210 students from nearly 100 countries and territories have been chosen among thousand to live and learn together. Many arrive carrying profoundly different cultural, political, and lived experiences. Our commitment to deliberate diversity extends not only financially (75% of our students are on full or significant scholarship) but also has us purposely bringing together students from regions in conflict with one another so that understanding can be built one relationship at a time as they share classrooms, residences, meals and friendships.
Diversity alone, however, is not enough to bring about peace, you have to do something with that diversity. It’s the reason we created a series of anti-polarization, civil dialogue workshops. It’s why we students host dozens of Global Lunch sessions to unpack and discuss what is happening in the news from the perspective of someone from that region. It’s why our monthly Global Affairs sessions bring together students from both side a conflict to share their truth. All of these purposeful opportunities are a chance for young people to engage across those differences with respect and curiosity. Time and again – and for more than a half century – we witness a simple truth; it is harder to dismiss, stereotype or fear someone once you know them by seeing the world through their eyes.
This year’s UN International Day of Peace falls on September 21, a date also celebrated globally by +60,000 alumni across our 18 schools and colleges as UWC Day. The UN’s theme, “Invest in Peace”, often inspires thoughts of governments, diplomacy, and international institutions, and while those efforts and institutions matter, we believe that peace is also built through every day, ordinary human interactions. It is built when we choose conversation over assumption. When we ask questions before offering conclusions. When we seek to understand before seeking to be understood.
On September 21, consider making a small investment in peace yourself. Speak to the neighbour you have never met. Call a family member with whom you’ve disagreed. Spend a little less time broadcasting opinions and a little more time exploring someone else’s perspective.
None of us can solve the world’s conflicts alone, but each of us can contribute to a culture of greater understanding. As Pearson recognized decades ago, knowing one another is often the first step toward peace.
In a divided world, that may be the most important conversation we can have.