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15 Minutes

Aaron David Miller President of Seeds of Peace

Stanford Social Innovation Review Spring 2005

Copyright 2005 by Leland Stanford Jr. University All Rights Reserved

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In 2003, Aaron David Miller lefthis State Department post as atop Middle East peace negotiatorand adviser to six secretaries ofstate to take the helm at Seeds ofPeace, a nonprofit that brings

together teenagers whose societies are inconflict. Seeds attempts, over the course ofa summer at an unusual camp in Maineand through follow-up programming inconflict regions, to transform them intoeventual leaders capable of seeking recon-ciliation. Since 1993, Seeds of Peace hasdeveloped a network of nearly 3,000potential leaders from 25 nations.

You have spent your career focusedon the most seemingly intractableissues facing mankind. What haveyou learned about the pursuit ofpeace, and how does it help youguide your organization?The Arab-Israeli conflict can beresolved. What led me to resign fromthe State Department was my con-viction that it has become a genera-tional conflict. We are in great dan-ger of losing an entire generation ofyoung Arabs, Israelis, and Palestini-ans to a kind of hopelessness anddespair that has characterized the sit-uation over the last four years. I leftthe State Department not because I’dlost faith in what I call transactionaldiplomacy, which is the business ofdiplomats that I did for 25 years. Butthat is not enough. Transactionaldiplomacy has to be married tosomething else, and that somethingelse is what I describe as transforma-tional diplomacy – creating personal

relationships between future leaders.

You really believe in achieving peaceone person – one teenager – at atime?While saving the world one person ata time is not the most ideal way toproceed, it’s critical if we’re evergoing to move beyond peace as thepurview of diplomats to the kind ofreconciliation and peacemaking thatneeds to be shared by broader con-stituencies. Contacts and relationshipsmust be forged between young lead-ers who will emerge as journalists,attorneys, legislators, sports figures,scientists. This is the stuff of whichrelationships between nations arebuilt. If there’s a sense of sharing acommon destiny and there are practi-cal ways of cooperating, people seethey’re part of the same structure.One person’s floor really is anotherperson’s ceiling.

Can you truly be nonpolitical withso much politics involved?We’re a nonpolitical organization inthe sense that we don’t take posi-tions on discrete issues. I wasasked to take a position on theIraq war, and I wasn’t going tobecause I’ve got George BushSr. and Bill Clinton on my advi-sory committee. We need thesupport of Democrats andRepublicans in this country.We need the support ofLabour prime ministers andLikud prime ministers inIsrael. So it involves a degree

of diplomacy and very careful man-agement. It’s a nonprofit where thereare all kinds of minefields.

Minefields?We brought [Israeli Labour leader]Shimon Peres and [Palestinian univer-sity president] Sari Nusseibeh toDetroit, where we have a very largeand very active friends committee. On the part of the Arab-Americancommunity, there were demonstra-tions against Peres outside the Ritz-Carlton where this event was held. Ibrought Queen Noor to Orlando,where we have another supportgroup. There was great unhappinessamong some elements in the Jewishcommunity over things she had writ-ten in her book about her husband[King Hussein of Jordan]. So we’reconstantly sitting on top of a politicalvolcano. It goes off occasionally.

How do you keep the volcano from

blowing?I focus on thecompellingnature of thiswork. I believethat only the

Aaron David MillerPresident, Seeds of Peace

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forces of individuals through theirown sense of courage and purposecan defeat the forces of history. Andif we abandon the field to thoseimpersonal forces of history, we haveabandoned the future. If Israelis andPalestinians, 14, 15, 16 years old, whohave lost friends and relatives to thisconflict, can make the physical andpsychological journey to living withone another and developing mutualrespect – and sometimes even affec-tion – for one another, it seems to meno obstacle is insurmountable, andI’m not going to indulge myself inthinking otherwise.

What enables you to achieve successwith these teenagers?We’ve created an environment whichprovides four basic freedoms thatthese kids simply cannot get at home– freedom of association withoutstigma, which is absolutely critical tobuilding any kind of trust; freedomof movement, which they do nothave at home; freedom to think criti-cally and independently, tough to dowhile caught up in these conflicts;and freedom from fear of mortalharm. Their parents cannot guaran-tee them 24 hours of absolute secu-rity. For three and a half weeks, we can.

That creates big changes in them?This environment sets the stage for aphenomenal transformation. Thatfirst night, you’ll find Israelis andPalestinians who won’t sleep. Notbecause they are homesick, whichthey are, or have jet lag, which theydo, but because they’re terrified thatduring the course of the night physi-cal harm will come to them from theother side. At the end of three and ahalf weeks, they are in mourningover perhaps never seeing each other

again or being unable to have contact.

Specifically, what do you do to fosterthis change?It happens because of the combina-tion of the abnormal – 90 minutesevery day with facilitators who useall kinds of techniques – with thenormal. We used to call them coexis-tence sessions. We now call them dia-logue sessions. Coexistence impliessimply allowing the other side to be.Real reconciliation is more than that.They’re really detoxification sessionsin which hatred and poison fromyears of conflict come out.

Do they really change their outlook,ceasing all antagonism?Can we claim the Israelis and Pales-tinians have resolved their conflict?No. Can we claim that the Arabsand Israelis will never again think illthoughts of one another? No. Butwe can claim this: For the first timein their lives, they hear the narrativeof the so-called other – the enemy –not from a rabbi or an imam or apriest or a politician or a journalistor a parent. They hear the story ofthe so-called other from a friend, apeer whose humanity and decencythey simply can no longer deny. OnePalestinian said to me, during theworst of the confrontation in sum-mer 2002, “I come for one reason, tohear and be heard.” So with thistransformative experience – and adecade of follow-up that we do –you end up creating authentic lead-ers who not only understand theneeds and requirements of theirown constituency, but they trulyappreciate the requirements of theother. That is the essence of conflictresolution. It’s also the essence ofleadership.

What makes for an effective leaderof a nonprofit? What makes youeffective?You have to believe in it and conveythat passion. And because I comefrom a world that is the opposite ofnongovernmental organizations, itmay well be that people pay moreattention. I mean, why would some-body who was an adviser to six secre-taries of state want to work withyoung people? The reason is thatbeing part of something bigger thanyourself, particularly on historicissues, is an honor and a privilege.

What did you learn at the bargain-ing table that enables you to do this?It’s the way I define my own life: “Theperfect should not be allowed tobecome the enemy of the good.”That phrase should be emblazonedover the portal of every negotiatingroom and boardroom in the world.The insistence on the pursuit of 100percent in conflicts will get you noth-ing. Or worse than nothing. Life is allabout finding a balance between thereal and the ideal. The negotiation ofreal peace will not be the property ofthe margins; it will not be the prop-erty of the right or left. It will be atthe center, where Seeds is.

What is the biggest challenge youface?Other than managing politics?Fundraising. We accept money fromcorporate sponsors and foundations,but most comes from individuals andevent-driven development, which isnot the most effective way to marshalresources.

Why is it a challenge? Because of thetime involved?No. Because of what we try to do.Hamas is running 5,000 young people

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“Hamas is running 5,000 people through their camps. They’re not coexistence camps.

We’re running 500. Those numbers don’t make any sense. Except for resources,

there’s no reason Seeds couldn’t bring 5,000 each summer to two or three camps.”

each summer through their camps.They’re not coexistence camps. We’rerunning 500. Those numbers don’tmake any sense There is no greaterchallenge that this country faces thanthe challenge that is brewing in SouthAsia and the Arabic and Muslimworld, and it’s a generational chal-lenge. Except for resources, there’s noreason why Seeds couldn’t bring 5,000each summer to two or three campsand have a significant multiplier effectby doing follow-up in the regions.

What’s the greatest difficulty in set-ting the budget?The unpredictability of what we’reable to raise against what we’re spend-ing. And making sure the budgets arereal and that we can raise resources tocover it. This is the problem with anynonprofit – the need for some sort offinancial cushion so chasing dollarsisn’t the single most important act inthe organization. We’re also putting alot of resources now into evaluation.

So you go back later and see whetheryour program works?Exactly. Zogby International haslooked at a portion of our young peo-ple from camp sessions in 2003. Thedegree to which their attitudes – evenin these circumstances – have beenconstant is encouraging. We are nowdoing a long-term study so we can seeover a decade what a difference thisprogram has made.

Why did you commission thosestudies? Can data bolster fundrais-ing?There had never been an effort tomeasure success and that was unac-ceptable. We need independent, credi-ble evaluation to determine whetherour program is working. Yes, ofcourse it’s driven by our donors, foun-

dations, corporate sponsors who wantto know. And they have a right toknow. The fact that you’re a nonprofitdoesn’t free you from the kinds ofstandards all other credible organiza-tions have to measure themselves by,and be measured by others. We alsowant to know whether programswork. We can adjust or modify themif they’re not.

What’s the structure of your organi-zation?I have a diverse board of 25 commit-ted people and a smaller executivecommittee. Both help with fundrais-ing. We’re now doing a strategic plan,and that brings up many issues.

Such as?A second camp. Should we concen-trate on one conflict or continue todeal with two or three? Is event-drivendevelopment the best way to go?Should the focus of our activities be inthe regions [where conflict occurs] orin the United States? I feel the regionis where success or failure lies. Histori-cally, we started with the camp inMaine.

So there’s tension over deviatingfrom your original mission?Remember, this organization wascreated in 1993 by a Hearst journal-ist, John Wallach. Forty-five of thefirst Seeds grads – Israeli, Palestinian,and Egyptian teens – were on theWhite House lawn on Sept. 13, 1993[when Yasser Arafat and YitzhakRabin signed the Oslo Accords]. In2000, everything broke down. We’vegot to go to regional or even unina-tional approaches, not as a substitutefor dialogue, but to empower theseyoung people within their communi-ties so they don’t become delegit-imized.

So you have to manage a transition?Some small nonprofits never survivethe deaths of their charismaticfounders. That whole process oftransition – how you move from anentrepreneurial phase of a nonprofitwith a founder beloved by all to theinstitutional phase, there’s dislocationin that.

How do all these changes – enlarg-ing operations, disagreements inter-nally, a polarized world – affect yourorganization and outlook?It is all infinitely more complicated.But it is also incredibly exciting andchallenging. The opportunities topresent a very compelling missionand a model for how to deal withthese conflicts have expanded expo-nentially. I went down to talk to theExxonMobil corporate board lastmonth for possible support. Theyunderstand not only from the corpo-rate public relations perspective butfrom also the global reality and sub-stance that organizations like this oneare worth supporting. So I believepolitical circumstances have broad-ened potential constituencies.

So you feel more hopeful?I think 2005 will bring a break in theIsrael-Palestinian stalemate. But ifyou ask me when you can see any-thing remotely resembling peacefulnormal relations between nations, I think it will be a couple of decades.That’s right about the time our old-est graduates will be coming intotheir own.

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