Fox Point Educator Working Toward Sustainable Peace

Welcome to Names in the News, Fox Point-Bayside Patch's new weekly column, where we introduce you to a local face.

Last week we sat down with for 54 years before deciding it's time to retire. 

This week, we're chatting with Robert Ricigliano (RR) of Fox Point. He's the Director, Institute of World Affairs, UWM; Adjunct Professor, Department of Communication, UWM. He's written a book called "Making Peace Last" which talks about not just finding peace between leaders, but making it sustainable and long-lasting. 

Patch: How long have you lived/worked in Fox Point?

RR: We moved to Fox Point in October 2000, so 11 years, six months ago.

Patch: What is your favorite thing about Fox Point?

RR: I love the quality of life, the sense of community especially around , the parent involvement and community support are amazing.

Patch: How and why did you decide to write your book?

RR: I decided to write the book after we moved to Fox Point and I started working at UWM.  I was heavily involved in an non-profit in Cambridge, MA that spun off of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School (where I got my law degree).  

I had been doing mediation work in conflicts in different parts of the world and we had our share of successes and failures. When I got to UWM, I had three questions that pre-occupied me:

1. Why did what we did work, when it worked? 
2. Why did what did not work, when it didn't work? 
3. Most importantly, why, even what we did worked, it didn't work?  

What I mean by this third question is that there were instances where we were successful as mediators -- e.g. we helped warring sides reach a peace deal -- but in the long run, the basic conflict/violence did not get much better and there was not a sustainable peace.  The third question is the one that most caught my attention.  My attempts to answer this question led me to approaches that take a more holistic or systemic approach to linking the success of individual efforts (like a mediation effort or an economic development effort) to long-term, society-wide peace.  This process of learning is what led to the book.

Patch: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

RR: I am most proud of my family.  Moving to Fox Point was a big part of that.  

On the professional side, it is hard to say.  There are big things, like being one of three people who originally conceived of the idea for an alliance of professionals who do conflict resolution work, which has, 12 years later, become the Alliance for Peace building with about 75 organizational members and hundreds of individual members.  There is the book, which represents a lot of what I have learned in the field.  But mostly, I am proud of the people I have worked with and relationships that I have built with people around the world.

Patch: What is your hope for your book and any goals you may have as a member of the Maple Dale School Board?

RR: I wrote the book in large part to help improve the practice of peace building and I hope that it makes a practical difference to how academics teach future peace builders, how policy makers and donors make critical decisions about how to improve the lives of people around the world, and to improve how practitioners do their work.

As for the school board, I can think of few endeavors that are more important to me than strengthening and supporting the education of our children.  I think Maple Dale-Indian Hill has set a standard for being creative and collaborative in how teachers, administrators, staff, students, parents, and the school board work together, without ideological biases, to create the best educational experience possible for our kids.  My hope is that we continue in this way. (I suppose this makes it one of the things I am proud of...)

Patch: Is there anyone local you admire or who inspires you? Why?

RR: Many.  I remember meeting Frank Zeidler many years ago when he was in his 90's.  His passion and intellect were impressive for anyone at any age.  I have been impressed and motivated by my colleagues at UWM.  Perhaps most of all, I am amazed and impressed by my kids and their classmates/friends/teammates as they achieve lots of what may be small victories in the long run, but are very big accomplishments now.

Patch: What can others do to make a difference?

RR: Roger Fisher, a mentor of mine at Harvard, had a great saying --"Choose to help." What he meant was, don't wait to be asked to help people make a difference, solve a problem, resolve a dispute, etc.

A lot of what people can do are everyday things, seemingly small things. We can be critical consumers of what we see in the media. We can try to honestly understand the perspective of people with whom we disagree. We can treat people as the allies we know them to be. We can take some time to investigate important issues and not accept what others say (even those with whom we agree) in order to demand more of our elected officials and talk with our neighbors and friends.