Promoting peace, yet sustaining conflict? A fantasy-theme analysis of Seeds of Peace publications

ISSN： 1740-0201

Source： Journal of Peace Education, Vol.6, Iss.1, 2009-03, pp. : 19-35

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Abstract

Seeds of Peace is a nongovernmental organization that annually brings together children from the Middle East and various other regions of conflict for a summer camp experience in the woods of Maine, USA. It also operates coexistence centers throughout the world. Founded in 1993, the organization has gained worldwide acclaim for its peace education programs. This fantasy-theme rhetorical analysis explains Seeds of Peace's rhetorical vision using Ernest Bormann's symbolic convergence theory. The analysis suggests that the rhetorical vision constituted by organizational stakeholders and promoted in marketing and promotional publications by Seeds of Peace project peace as something achievable only in the future. The result is an organization that seeks to bring peace to the world, but potentially participates in sustaining conflict in the present. This article considers the ways in which peace institutes and nongovernmental organizations can unknowingly participate, rhetorically, in maintaining a deferred sense of peace because of the ways in which they utilize policymakers' talk about their organizations' work.