Hidden Meanings and the Power of Individual Leadership: Remembering Grand Mufti Kuftaro of Syria

Akio Matsumura

President Trump announced this week that US soldiers will leave Syria, despite opposing messages from his advisers like John Bolton and Brett McGurk. Policy aside, this decision has helped bring the tragedy in Syria back to the top of the American news cycle and our minds.

When I see the news clips, I think of the children, the terror and fear they have suffered through and carry within them. I think of the dead, the half million people who lost their lives in the war. I think of the six million refugees trying to find a new life, and millions more who have been internally displaced, unable or unwilling to cross the border out. Outside those borders, others in the region suffer: from the Iraqi civil war, the Kurdish struggle for autonomy, and the ongoing struggle for political control and security in Israel and Palestine — I will always remember Prime Minister Rabin’s strong efforts to host another Global Forum conference, with Chairman Arafat, before his assassination.

Syria’s crisis was not inevitable. Men, political and religious leaders in Syria and abroad seeking profit or glory, steered Syria toward this crisis. Rather than assign blame, what I wish to emphasize is that people, not institutions, drove the change. Institutions implement, people lead.

At the same time, individuals are also the best possibility to make change for good. What would have happened if such counter-forces had been present in Syria in the lead up to the civil war?… Continue reading

October 23, 2015November 7, 2015

The Tunisian Nobel Prize: Dialogue as a Political Virtue

日本語訳 | français | العربية

The refugee crisis will no doubt reshape the geopolitical, cultural , global economic policies and challenge the core principles of the Europe Union. The Syria crisis will not only continue to drive the refugee crisis but also potentially trigger revolution in Syria and other Middle East countries. We would like to share a mosaic view of these complicated issues. France has historical ties with Syria, North Africa and the Middle East,and in general, the French have a rich knowledge about the issues in the region. I was fortunate to be introduced to Patrice Barrat, founder of Bridge Initiative International, by my good friends Byron Janis and his wife, Maria Cooper Janis.**

Patrice has worked at the grass-roots level for many years on his concept to build the bridge to transcend traditional barriers of culture and ideology. In recent years, he lived in Tunisia to promote his mission at the fount of the Arab Spring and witness the activities of the Quartet, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates. I am very pleased to introduce his noble work.

(**Byron Janis, the world famous concert pianist, composed the Global Forum theme song “One World “ – with lyrics by the four time Oscar winner Sammy Cahn and sung by John Denver. Maria Cooper Janis is the daughter of the renowned actor Gary Cooper.)

— Akio Matsumura

The Tunisian Nobel Prize

Dialogue as a Political Virtue

It seemed so simple. They were here, on stage, all together for the first time since the news came from Oslo – on October 9, 2015, a week earlier – that the union of their forces in the summer of 2013 had earned them the Nobel Peace Prize.… Continue reading

January 15, 2015November 7, 2015

New Type of Confrontation and the 25th Anniversary of the Moscow Global Forum

The violent attacks in Paris that resulted in seventeen deaths last week and prompted millions to march for unity in the Paris streets are symptomatic of the new type of confrontation that has disrupted lives, politics, and economic systems. Stark differences in religion, culture, and the way we seek to live our lives has caused many around the world to perceive their lives at odds with others, with strict adherence to ideology playing a role for all involved. Fear, pessimism and a lack of trust describe daily interactions in many parts of the world as well as our international politics as well.

When it began 25 years ago today, the Global Forum for Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders in Moscow symbolized the beginning in a new era of openness and optimism as much as it closed a dark period of distrust and disagreement. The Berlin Wall had fallen only two months before, and the Soviet Union and the United States were seeking a way to cooperate after the Cold War. President Gorbachev, leading the opening of the Soviet Union, agreed to host more than one thousand religious and political leaders at the Kremlin for a multi-day dialogue on the pressing global issues of the times. In contrast with today, leaders were seeking new ways forward, making inroads with new conversation rather than closing off avenues of dialogue.

People chose to trust and engage across cultural and political divides.… Continue reading

August 19, 2014September 9, 2014

How Can Harvard Best Instill Vision in Our Leaders?

日本語訳 | Deutsch | français

By Akio Matsumura

The heat of August is a time for many to seek a rare vacation. This is as true for President Obama as it is for a small business owner or a teacher. Indeed, for students, parents, and teachers it is also the last pause before a headlong dive into the coming school year.

Syrian Situation: Farah Pandith, Institute of Politics resident fellow and former State Department special representative to Muslim communities, makes a point to Belfer Center Future of Diplomacy Director Nicholas Burns during a JFK Jr. Forum on the Syrian crisis. (Photo Credit: Harvard Kennedy School)

Since the Global Forum conferences in Oxford, Moscow, Kyoto, Rio de Janeiro, Konya, and Jerusalem I have had the privilege to work with many extraordinary students. Their fresh ideas and dynamic energy helped produce better outcomes at each meeting. In 2007 I was fortunate to be introduced to Chris Cote, then a sophomore at Tufts University, whose contributions, from managing our blog to developing our strategy, have been indispensable. Next month, he will begin his studies at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Many of his classmates will be from other countries, sent by their governments for an elite education and on whom their countries will rely to lead them through a difficult but hopeful future.

Beyond the academic curriculum, future leaders benefit from the idealism a class fosters. The friendships that grow during school — benefitting from trust only classmates can share — will be an invaluable asset that the students will lean on throughout their careers, invisible connections that help transcend institutional and hierarchical norms.… Continue reading

July 1, 2013December 19, 2018

Global Education: Austrian Students Search for the Missing Link

Read in German.

I am proud to introduce the work of a unique class of high school students in Austria, under the guidance of two teachers, Hermann and Lenore (pictured left). They have spent their semester looking at different facets of the Fukushima disaster and preparing essays expounding on their reactions. They have relied heavily, but not entirely, on the work available on this site.

Read the class pamphlet

For the past 36 months this site, www.AkioMatsumura.com, has focused on the Fukushima Daiichi disaster and provided expert scientific, medical, and political commentary to better understand the implications of an ongoing nuclear issue. We have connected nuclear experts, diplomats, medical experts, and power plant technicians in order to provide a complete picture. In other words, we see the importance of establishing horizontal connections between professions, rather than limiting our perspective to one area of expertise.

The Fukushima disaster is only one example of why we need to Find the Missing Link. Before this I worked to stem religious conflict, create political unity in Asia, and create global environmental awareness.

To me, finding the missing link is discovering solutions to the gaps that exist between the silos of our vertical thinking. What problems do we face that we had never anticipated, or at least not discussed appropriately? Fukushima is certainly one.

A pivot to true horizontal thinking – connecting groups and fields otherwise unconnected – is the only viable approach to resolve the issues we will face throughout the 21^st century.… Continue reading

July 2, 2012December 19, 2018

The Hydrangea Revolution and Japan’s Unheard Voices

This article is now available in German.

“The splitting of the atom has changed everything, except man’s way of thinking, and so we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.” – Albert Einstein

By Akio Matsumura

Who is leading us toward nuclear catastrophe? Government and political leaders, profit-minded business leaders, and paid nuclear scientists. Yes, it is difficult to change their thinking.

However, those of us in Japan and the United States live in democracies. Government derives its power from the people through laws that guarantee our freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press. And our history shows that people under oppression will eventually stand up. In recent memory, the Arab Spring shook the Middle East free from the grip of several dictators, and although much of the movement erupted in violence, real change has come. This past Friday Mohammed Mursi became Egypt’s first civilian, democratically elected president.

Since the Fukushima accident a popular movement has grown in Japan as well. Also on Friday, tens of thousands of people protested the government’s decision to restart two reactors this month at the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. People chanted “No More Fukushima,” and called for nuclear energy to remain off in Japan. They want accountability and responsibility by the Japanese government and TEPCO. (It is notable that many young mothers joined the demonstration to call for their children’s safety).

These tens of thousands are the Hydrangea Revolution. Hydrangea flowers are composed of many small flowers and are resilient in the face of strong winds and storms.… Continue reading

May 7, 2011May 10, 2011

A Lifetime Chasing Osama: Implications and Possibilities for Our Generation

By Chris Cote

I have never fought in a war, but for the majority of my memorable life my country, the United States, has been in one. The United States emerged triumphant in the Cold War shortly after I was born and throughout the 1990s exerted its military power in a number of small affairs throughout North Africa and the Middle East. This involvement in the region expanded and escalated immensely during the 2000s. At the same time, Americans and many others willingly traded in political freedoms and compromised their democracies for nominally greater security. Three recent events—the end of the Iraq War, the continuing Arab Uprisings, and the surprising death of Osama bin Laden—have opened the way for the United States to reflect on its role in the global affairs. I am twenty four years old and I have acknowledged the shifting state in world affairs and America’s necessarily smaller role in them. I am looking forward to a future as an American whose country is not intractably occupied abroad and able to focus on more urgent priorities at home and a more narrow conception of vital interests abroad. Instead of clawing to its possessions and interests abroad, the United States should shrink its role abroad, and polish off its tarnished political system at home, the political system responsible for its initial greatness.

Growing up in Massachusetts

I was born on a snowy April day in the waning years of the Cold War. The long ideological and physical battle between the East and West—like the concurrent struggle between the Celtics and the Lakers—had to come to an end.… Continue reading

April 25, 2011April 26, 2011

And If the Mountain Cannot Be Conquered: What Do We Have Left after the 11th of September, February, and March?

By Akio Matsumura

“Well George, we knocked the bastard off.” These were Sir Edmund Hillary’s first words to a friend after descending from the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Time Magazine named him and his companion Tenzing Norgay, the first two to summit Mount Everest, two of the most influential people of the 20^th century. The idea of conquering pervades Western thought and has given way to human civilization’s incredible achievements. But this insatiable need to surpass has led us into many intractable situations and caused us to lose sight of the larger forces at play. Did they really “knock the bastard off?”

As humans, we are governed by two sets of laws—natural law (often defined or interpreted through spiritual texts) and human (political) law. How we choose to perceive and reconcile their power greatly alters the trajectory of human civilization. The most spectacular consequences of these laws, natural disasters and wars, define our human history. Pompeii is still being excavated 2000 years after a volcano buried it in ash and disease has wreaked havoc on whole populations. Human-waged wars—from warring ancient Chinese states to World War II—have shaken civilizations as well.

Three recent symbolic dates stand out as civilization-shakers. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States. On February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt after several weeks of revolt. And on March 11, 2011, Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. The human toll and sacrifices from these events are equally painful.… Continue reading

April 17, 2011August 5, 2013

A Conversation with Senator Claiborne Pell: Our Perception of Islam’s Peoples and Cultures is America’s 21st Century Challenge

Read in Japanese (日本語).

By Chris Cote

“I always try to let the other man have my way.” -Senator Claiborne Pell (RI).

Senator Pell accomplished a great deal in a long life of service to his country. After attending Princeton, Pell departed for World War II and then joined the Foreign Service. He was elected to the Senate in 1960. He was largely responsible for the Pell Grant (first called the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant), which has helped thousands of low-income Americans attend college, and wrote the laws that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War. In 1987 he became Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he led until the Senate switched parties in 1995. He had developed Parkinson’s disease and retired from the Senate in 1997, after nearly four decades in office. (To read a charming account of the senator’s life, see his obituary in the New York Times.)

Pell’s deep devotion to service was not confined to the US: his vision, as a statesmen and as an individual, transcended borders. Senator Pell sat on the Steering Committee of the Global Forum conferences in Moscow and in Rio while chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Akio has consistently mentioned him as one of the few US politicians he has known who thought beyond stale, politically dogmatic issues and focused on transcending traditional barriers in the name of greater national and international security.… Continue reading

November 12, 2010December 20, 2018

A Most Optimistic Man: Challenging Complacency

By Akio Matsumura

The United States and Japan are both plagued by suicide. Many people are taking their own lives out of a sense of isolation and loneliness. Although the circumstances for the two cases are distinct, the challenge to both countries–overcoming complacency–is the same.

A few weeks ago someone called my cell phone and started speaking to me in Japanese. I answered in Japanese but knew it was foreigner’s voice. The person on the other end said he had studied Japanese for five years at a high school in Australia. We continued talking, mixing Japanese and English, and laughed. This short conversation let me forget a moment that I was talking to a person with no arms or legs. It was Mr. Nick Vujicic. On the phone, we planned to meet at his friend’s apartment in Central Park West. He arrived, rolled his wheelchair into the lobby, and we chose a quiet, private place to chat. His staff lifted him out of the wheel chair and into a chair at the table. They placed his iPhone before him and left, leaving us alone to meet. I wondered how Nick would let his staff know when our meeting ended.

After we spoke for an hour and a half, he slid his nose across the screen of the iPhone to unlock it. He called his staff and asked them to bring a camera so that we could take a photograph together. I told Nick I was amazed to see him handle the phone so fluidly.… Continue reading