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A Draft Letter to Samantha Power

7/28/2007 13:10:49

Below is a draft of a letter about DoNT to human rights activist Samantha Power. I am really eager for comments and ideas about this, so please read it and let me know what you think. When I get it polished up, I will send it to her and keep you posted if she replies.

Dear Professor Power,

I know you are busy and I will try to be as brief as I can. I am one of the three students you met with this past May at Brown University's Commencement, where you received an honorary degree. That conversation was for me an important glimpse into the kind of realism necessary to accomplish some good in this world. Having been recently following with great interest the Carr Center's work with the Pentagon and having seen your article in the New York Times Book Review ("Our War on Terror"), I wonder if you might be willing to offer some advice about an idea that has been swimming around in my head and a number of conversations these days.

Living in my home town of Arlington, Virginia for the summer (during the year I am a graduate student in religious studies at U.C. Santa Barbara), I am struck as always by the proliferation of tall towers with the names of defense contractors surrounding the Pentagon. As I am not the first to notice, the incredible inertia behind the military-industrial complex that they represent seems like an insurmountable force pushing our country into the habit of costly, counter-productive militarism abroad. Frustrated with anti-war groups operating on the outside (I recently participated in planting an olive tree on the grounds of Raytheon's factory in Santa Barbara, among other things), I wonder if the best strategy might be to work from the inside.

Inspired by the potential of scientific methods of modeling conflict I have encountered in graduate school, as well as by attending a night course on nonviolence by Washington fixture Coleman McCarthy, I've been toying with ideas about how this might be done. What I've come up with, for the moment, is a mock website for a company called DoNT - the Division for Nonviolent Technology (http://dont.smallsclone.com/about.php). It poses as a competitor to the defense contractors on equal footing, except that its solutions are nonviolent tools and techniques, rather than weapons systems. In order to be competitive, of course, DoNT would have to demonstrate that it can underbid and outperform the others. Given the enormous cost of violence these days, this seems like a realistic possibility.

While working on these ideas, I was thrilled to read articles about the Carr Center's interactions with the Pentagon on the Counterinsurgency Manual. It seems like the epitome of a sellable nonviolent technology - protect noncombatants because it will help you win, rather than just because it seems, to some, morally right. As every violent tactic in the war on terror has seemingly backfired, I suspect that a market for this kind of solution will only grow. This opportunity, if taken, might bring about the transformation of the already-too-old military-industrial complex.

How, first of all, does this kind of talking strike you, given your experience with human rights policy and with decision-makers? Could such a company possibly be competitive? Second, who would you suggest I seek out for further advice and possibly partnerships? My expertise is neither in business nor foreign policy, but in religious ideologies (which sometimes choose nonviolence and sometimes don't) and their cognitive foundations. I am deeply interested in fostering creative communities that can develop innovative solutions to old problems.

I would gratefully appreciate whatever thoughts you have to offer. The work you do continues to be an inspiration to me and my friends.

Sincerely,
Nathan Schneider

letter sent - 8/15/2007 23:43:49
Posted by nathan

I sent the letter this evening. It said:

Dear Professor Power,

I know you are busy and I will try to be as brief as I can. I am one of the three students you met with this past May at Brown University's Commencement, where you received an honorary degree. That conversation was for me an important glimpse into the kind of realism necessary to accomplish some good in this world. Having been recently following with great interest the Carr Center's work with the Pentagon and having seen your article in the New York Times Book Review ("Our War on Terror"), I wonder if you might be willing to offer some advice about an idea that has been swimming around in my head and in a number of conversations these days.

Living in my home town of Arlington, Virginia for the summer (during the year I am a graduate student in religious studies at U.C. Santa Barbara), I am struck as always by the proliferation of tall towers with the names of defense contractors surrounding the Pentagon. As I am not the first to notice, the incredible inertia behind the military-industrial complex that they represent seems like an insurmountable force pushing our country into the habit of costly, counter-productive militarism abroad. Frustrated with anti-war groups operating on the outside (I recently participated in planting an olive tree on the grounds of Raytheon's factory in Santa Barbara, among other things), I wonder if the best strategy might be to work from the inside.

Inspired by the potential of scientific methods of modeling conflict I have encountered in graduate school, I have been toying with ideas about how this might be done. What I've come up with, for the moment, is a mock website for a company called DoNT - the Division for Nonviolent Technology (http://dont.smallsclone.com/). It poses as a competitor to the defense contractors on equal footing, except that its solutions are nonviolent training, peacekeepers, network systems, and strategies, rather than weapons systems and mercenaries. In order to be competitive, of course, DoNT would have to demonstrate that it can underbid and outperform the others. Given the enormous cost of violence these days, both human and financial, this seems like a realistic possibility.

While working on these ideas, I was thrilled to read articles about the Carr Center's interactions with the Pentagon on the Counterinsurgency Manual. It seems like the epitome of a sellable nonviolent technology - protect noncombatants because it will help you win, rather than just because it seems, to some, morally right. As every violent tactic in the war on terror has seemingly backfired, I suspect that a market for this kind of solution will only grow. This opportunity, if taken, might bring about the transformation of the already-too-old military-industrial complex.

How, first of all, does this kind of talking strike you, given your experience with human rights policy and with decision-makers? Could you imagine such a company possibly being profitable and competitive? Second, who would you suggest I seek out for further advice and possibly partnerships? My expertise is neither in business nor foreign policy, but in religious ideologies (which sometimes choose nonviolence and sometimes don't) and their cognitive foundations. I am deeply interested in fostering creative communities that can develop innovative solutions to old problems.

I would gratefully appreciate whatever thoughts you have to offer. The work you do continues to be an inspiration to me and my friends.

Sincerely,
Nathan Schneider

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