The Peace Manifesto
Despite man's incredible advances in science and technology, “peace” has still managed to elude us. Getting my Master’s in Dispute Resolution changed my life by both reminding me of the conflict resolution practices of my Igbo culture and opening me up to a field that contained frameworks that can inspire peace, especially if adopted by more people in society. The issue is, the dispute resolution process as it is practiced currently is an offshoot of the court based legal system. Public policy was implemented to reduce the burden on the already overburdened courts as a form of alternative dispute resolution. In my opinion, a large reason for the growing amount of conflict and division is a lack of common knowledge on how to manage conflict. Conflict in our society today is handled on two opposite extremes of the spectrum, either violence or harsh legal action on one end or passive aggressiveness and outright avoidance on the other end. Our world has never been so connected and conflicted. If violence, litigation or simply ignoring the existence of anything you disagree with can take root as acceptable culture, I am determined to promote a counterculture making the practice of peace just as commonplace. I’m on a mission to develop a culture of peace. I believe, instead of the, so far unsuccessful top down government or institution led approaches to peace we’re used to, peace is treated as a learned skill, to be developed and practiced daily. Maybe the peace the world so desperately needs would be much better achieved if conflict resolution skills, peace inspiring skills and solutions, are put in the hands of people that confront conflict daily.
ABOUT
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Hi, I’m Odera McDonald, a conflict consultant, mediator, and peace journalist living in Los Angeles, California. I was inspired by my grandfather, a columnist for a Nigerian newspaper and my grandmother, a history buff and wonderful storyteller, to become a journalist. I got a Masters in Public Policy to continue my journalistic inquiry into many of the issues I covered. While learning Public Policy, I developed even more questions which led me to dispute resolution, where all the questions prompted by journalism, and deepened by public policy, were reframed and put into fresh perspective through mediation frameworks and restorative justice theory. The combinations of these fields and the multifaceted skills derived from them make me particularly suited to understand conflict and recommend solutions to it.
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For generations we've invested in diplomacy, institutions, and international cooperation to pursue peace. Those efforts matter. But peace is also shaped much closer to home—in our families, workplaces, friendships, and communities, where people navigate disagreement every day.
My work explores what happens when we treat peace not only as a global aspiration, but as a set of practical skills that individuals can learn, practice, and carry into the relationships that shape society.
We often think of peace as something negotiated between nations or protected by institutions. But peace is also practiced in everyday conversations—in our homes, our workplaces, and our communities. My work explores how transforming the way we understand conflict can help build a more peaceful society, one relationship at a time.
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Our society has laws for the protection of one’s right to be violent as a means of self defense. But there are no instructions on de-escalation, how to navigate miscommunication and how to squash conflict before it gets violent. Why have we created a culture where aversion to conflict is seen as weak. Peaceful people with peaceful ideas are only religious holy people. Solving for peace started as an article, grew into a social media platform and has ballooned into a business dedicated to making peace and peaceful resolutions to conflict mainstream so that collectively we are better equipped to move towards world peace, but it starts with us. The mission is to infuse a culture of peace.
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