Dear CCI Friends,
The ‘news’ is overwhelmingly dark; diplomacy is dead, we are told, and the madness in Ukraine must roll on to a bloody conclusion.
Insisting that there are pathways out of the battlefront morass that do not require unconditional surrender, total annihilation or maximum humiliation is the work of diplomats and, if their guidance is heeded, diplomacy is not dead. Two legitimate experts on the subject – George Beebe, former director of the CIA’s Russian analysis, now director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute, and Nicolai N. Petro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, senior Washington Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy – have both given clear guidance on the matter in the interviews below. Please consider their proposals and give us your thoughts.
War, how to make it and how to get out of it, is one thing but what comes next? How do we make peace?
Our friend, Alexander Korobko from Donetsk, is a filmmaker who is working on a series called “The Art of Peace” – a subject not just dear to our hearts at CCI but the sum total reason for our existence. Please see his beautiful tribute to Igor Alexandrovich Naivalt, a true peace worker.
With volumes of words and billions of dollars and millions of lives devoted to the art of war, is it not time for all of us to lean into the creative process for peace?
Glenn Diesen interviews George Beebe
“European Security Cannot Be NATO Centric”
George Beebe: The Peace Plan with Russia the West Ignores
Ian Proud interview with Prof. Nicolai Petro
“Ultimately, Putin Will Be Proven Right”
Prof. Nicolai Petro: Zelensky Must Go Before Real Peace Talks Can Begin
Alexander Korobko, Episode 2, “The Art of Peace”
“Creation is Always Stronger Than Destruction”
Sincerely,
The Directors
Center for Citizen Initiatives