An expert on the effects of war, MSU’s Wilmer now studies those who work for peace

Montana State University political science professor Franke Wilmer had spent many years studying war and its effects on human rights until a chance meeting in Bozeman turned her research toward those who effectively work for peace.
 
Wilmer will speak about successful efforts to build peace in the West Bank, one of the planet’s most war-torn locations, during the next MSU Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series. Her free lecture, “Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine: Empathy and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” will be available online beginning at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.

Provost Bob Mokwa said Wilmer was invited to deliver the lecture because her work is emblematic of the tripartite principles of the university’s land-grant mission.
 
“She brings to the classroom the same attributes that have made her an internationally recognized scholar,” Mokwa said. “Dr. Wilmer emboldens our students to think critically, to be inquisitive and to consider local impacts of global issues and what it means to be an engaged, informed citizen.”
 
Wilmer, a professor in the Department of Political Science in the College of Letters and Science, has long studied war criminals in Bosnia as well as women’s and Indigenous rights around the globe, writing several books on those topics. However, a reception at her rabbi’s Bozeman home in 2016 for Israeli peace negotiator Gershon Baskin led Wilmer to turn from the study of the causes of violence to think about the causes of peacemaking. Baskin is a mediator and the founder of the Institute for Education for Jewish Arab Coexistence. He was a key negotiator between Hamas and the Israeli government for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Palestinians for five years.

 
Meeting Baskin prompted Wilmer to wonder: If some people were drawn to violence, why are others drawn to peace, even in the most complex situations? And how do they achieve it?
 
“I had been interested in why people do bad things, but these people made me think about people who resist violence and political conflict,” she said. “It got me curious.”
 
That question led Wilmer to make five research trips to Israel in four years where she spent considerable time in the West Bank. During one of those visits to Tel Aviv, machine gun fire rang out as she was having dinner at a nearby restaurant. Yet, despite the strife, she found the people there to be universally generous, kind and caring and hospitable.

Baskin suggested that Wilmer contact the Parents Circle Family Forum, a group of parents and families of both Israeli and Palestinian children killed in the conflict who work for peace rather than revenge. Despite their extreme personal loss, group members were willing to work together across ethnic groups to work for a lasting peace.

 
Wilmer’s book on the topic, “Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine: Empathy and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” was published this month by Lexington, Rowman and Littlefield. Wilmer said her work has made her believe that empathy and moderation on both sides is one of the keys to solving the conflict.

“I don’t think people know how empathic these peace activists on both sides are,” Wilmer said. She said three chapters of her book are their personal stories. “Their stories can bring tears to your eyes.”
 
She said that in talking to the peace activists, who have all experienced great loss, she realized that nonviolent solutions really can work.
 
“Empathy is central to this work,” she said. She said that even though we live in a society of insults and injuries, for peace to be made, both sides must be empathetic to the lives of those on the other side.
“You have to realize you can never really walk in someone else’s shoes, but …making the effort is what touches another person.”
 
Wilmer said that while the book is an academic resource, she also hopes that it inspires students, scholars and activists working for peace. And while the work is based in the war-torn Middle East, Wilmer said she thinks it has universal application, including to the divisions in contemporary American society. She hopes that it may provide guidance for people who are identified with a group ethnically and culturally to overcome victimization and transform their thinking about themselves, as the nonviolent peace activists from the Middle East have done.

 
To that end, last fall Wilmer worked to bring her work to MSU when she partnered with the MSU Leadership Institute to livestream from the West Bank the webinar Enemies to Allies: A Rabbi and a Palestinian Activist.”
“Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine” is Wilmer’s fourth book. Her previous books are: “The Indigenous Voice in World Politics,” “The Social Construction of Man, the State and War: Identity, Conflict and Violence in Former Yugoslavia” and “Human Rights in International Politics.”
 
In addition to her academic work, Wilmer previously served in the Montana House of Representatives, and she is a past chair of the Montana Human Rights Commission. She also was a co-founder of the Gallatin Valley Human Rights Task Force.
 
A graduate of the University of Maryland, where she received her doctorate in political science, Wilmer has taught at MSU since 1991 and travels extensively internationally speaking about human rights.
 
For more information about Wilmer’s upcoming lecture or the Provost Distinguished Lecture Series, go to: montana.edu/pdl/.