"LEADERS WITHOUT BORDERS"

FOR A PHILOSOPHY OF ACTIVE NON-VIOLENCE

The Doctorate in Peace Administration program aims to promote the UN's core values of peace based on active non-violence and universal human rights.

MISSIONS

Since the end of the Cold War, the nature and physiognomy of conflicts have undergone profound changes. Conflict situations have become more complex, they are increasingly the result of internal tensions within nations and the reasons for violence are multiple (economic, social, religious, ethnic, etc.). In this context, traditional diplomacy, based on relations between nations, aspires to be assisted by organizations which know the specific nature of conflicts and which are able to go in depth in understanding local situations.

To facilitate the role of the forces of the peacekeeping operations deployed by the United Nations, the international community also needs leaders who combine a strong culture of peace and involvement in theaters of operations, as has been possible. to make a predecessor in the care of suffering populations around the world.

The mission of leaders without borders is to train messengers, builders and negotiators of peace. These missions could be structured around three dimensions:

Apprehension and understanding of local problems and obstacles related to peacekeeping,
Actions in the field as a pressure group with strong media coverage,
Education of new generations on issues of peace.

As part of their missions, future leaders without borders will supervise the “UNCR's peace corps of volunteers”.

TOWARDS A NEW ORIENTATION OF THE 3rd CYCLE OF GRADUATE STUDIES FOR PEACE

As those responsible for doctoral training, we cannot deny that the future of abstract theses has always been the object of a vexation which, over the years, has turned into a real repressed in the most classical and psychoanalytic sense. of the term.

We fight as professors so that the value of diplomas is recognized and can serve the talents of our doctoral students to register, either in the professional world, or in the world of research. But it is clear that, in this competitive logic, we often forget the essential: the current, real and effective future of abstract theses.

The cupboards of universities are so many vaults where real proposals, concepts and ideas sleep and gather dust because, once the theses are defended and the doctoral degree obtained, the often brilliant abstract researches fall into oblivion and are no more than 'a tool at the service of technical and conceptual expertise detached from any effective network.

In our field, namely that of peace, the symptoms are even more obvious than in other fields because, between a doctoral student in political philosophy and the world of action, there is a world, that of diplomatic networks and powers, so that between reflection and action a thick veil is interposed, a distance has widened.

We consider this to be a complete waste. This comes from the fact that the theses most often relate to theoretical subjects, satisfactory for the intellect but whose very expression reveals such hermeticism and such linguistic inflation that they become far removed from practical applications and incomprehensible for the actors. .

So a lot of gray matter, intellectual strength, enthusiasm are lost.

Drawing up this observation, we must be able to question our own training and the general design of the third cycle, the general design of theses by including doctoral work in a process of reconciliation between pragmatism and abstraction in the form of a clause additional: any theoretical thesis should be accompanied and linked to a concrete practical project.

In our case, at UNCR University / CRN, the Doctorate degree was only issued after the concrete realization of the peace project by the doctoral student who had an obligation of effectiveness by the concrete implementation of his project.

This is the same concept that was adopted for the PhD in International Governance and Sustainable Development since the incumbent government admitted to the program (presented to the UN in 2006) had to defend a thesis including a practical governance component immediately. applicable by their governments.

Another change in the third cycle is underway, namely virtual dematerialization by entering online courses into the curriculum, thus abolishing the distance between doctoral students and the thesis director.

We must take note of the need to change the educational methods associated with this technological context. Teaching methods have changed and must change with the computer and internet revolution not to suffer it.

And, we must admit that nowadays many American or Asian universities around the world offer doctoral training through the internet.

We were also the very first to experiment with online courses at the United Nations in the 2000s by the Cercle de Réflexion des Nations (UNCR University) for the Doctorate in Peace Administration. And we maintain, in the light of this experience, that this shift in the dematerialization of prices is as much to be avoided in its negative aspects as to be espoused in its general tendency.

To marry because it allows to keep for doctoral students a local registration, which is a virtue insofar as it testifies to a resistance to the process of emigration dispossessing these best brains from the countries in difficulty. As part of the doctoral training in peace administration, this internet tool has been an asset for peace. The doctoral students worked for the concrete realization of their peace project in their countries of residence.

Thus, since 2002, the thesis subjects, original and innovative such as that of “La Parenté à janterie en Afrique de l'Ouest” (organization of socio-political ritual games with a cathartic vocation to evacuate intercommunity violence), thus prove that doctoral students have a real knowledge of solutions and adequate strategies for peace in their country, in harmony with their culture, their beliefs and their traditions.

To be avoided because it leads to an autonomy which destroys the teaching function and a certain companionship essential for university exchange. We need forums for debate and fight against this isolation which can lead to gaps and to phenomena of desocialization of doctoral students cut off from research networks. It therefore remains essential to consider as a pillar of postgraduate training the constitution of privileged moments and privileged relations between doctoral students and thesis director.

We are thus seeking to promote the idea that such a movement of bringing together the world of action and the world of reflection coupled with the movement of dematerialization and moments of university meeting is generalized for the 3rd cycle concerning studies linked to peace in all universities so that each department of abstract discipline in all fields and in particular in the fields of political philosophy, political science and political sociology can, regardless of the subject chosen for the thesis defense , lead to a concrete project for peace.

Then the contributions for peace would take a big step forward. The research would benefit everyone; not just to one country but to every country in the world.

We are obviously aware of the conflicts between idealism and materialism, of the conflicts between pragmatism and transcendent empiricism, but this inflection would combine the two levels without confusing them. And the goal, to constitute an intellectual current with a practical goal in the service of peace benefiting all peoples pushing aside the barriers of nationalities, can be a universal goal on which everyone can agree.

This vision has just been tested in France and in the United States in 2014 by UNCR University / CRN and the University of Paris 8 Nanterre (operating jointly and jointly) on the subject of a thesis in philosophy leading to a concrete project. of peace “Observatory of conflicts”. Thus, the doctoral student can simultaneously aim for two doctoral degrees in Philosophy and Peace Administration, with a single jury and a single thesis defense including a philosophical theory in the service of a concrete project for peace. This solution, which can be duplicated everywhere, could easily be generalized.

This new approach is resolutely modern and progressive. So she seeks to:

Continue to select doctoral students according to their merit but above all their motivation and their potential, without money being a barrier to talent because it is peace that is at stake. It is this rule that prevailed during of the first two promotions selected at the UN in 2002 and 2004 (Dag Hammarskjöld and Vieira Di Melo promotions)
Continue and develop theoretical education via the Internet, use courses available from prestigious professors around the world and make doctoral students work through application exercises.
Bringing doctoral students together around their professors during practical work on concrete projects, favoring group work; each doctoral student can express himself and enrich the projects of others under the modality and the constraint of the imperative of thematic and regional articulations. Concrete peace projects, one part of which is autonomous and refers to a local practical peace project and a second part considering its insertion and its articulation at the regional level in relation to other concrete regional peace projects, as well as to thematic interregional strategies (development of education, land and wealth reappropriation program, acquisition of agricultural techniques, civil engineering, etc.)
Promote seminars bringing together all doctoral students of all promotions in the spirit of the seminars in Paris (France) in 2003, Longview (USA) and Rabat (Morocco) in 2004 organized by the Cercle de Réflexion des Nations.
Increase inter-university exchanges through internal networks or other joint supervision partnerships.
Do not use a graded assessment until the knowledge and skill objective is achieved.
Favor the formation of a culture of maturation and duration in the form of a continuous reading seminar and courses on complete works as opposed to training courses offering skills through the brief assimilation of eclectic knowledge.
Also teach the duties of Man towards others and to planet Earth. Continue the commitment of doctoral students to sign a "Code of Ethics" developed at the United Nations in 2002
To welcome doctoral students and doctors on a campus conducive to theoretical meditation and spiritual wisdom, the structure of which must espouse the concept. Teaching can take place in this natural environment, as the creator of the first Hellenic academy already recommended.
Provide ongoing training for graduate doctors, even those who have carried out their peace project. They will thus be able to motivate doctoral students and advise them as “mentors”. All these doctors have a vocation to represent the Circle of Reflection of Nations in the world because they are “Leaders without borders” for peace.

This approach will support the “Peace Academy” made up of high personalities (one per country) chosen for their work and initiatives for peace. They will be responsible for developing an Encyclopedia of Peace and will award each year, during a ceremony prestigious, the “Globes of Peace” which will reward notable actions in favor of peace in the world.

December 24, 2015

Doctoral College of the Cercle de Réflexion des Nations / UNCR University