Sociologist embraces non-violent conflict to avoid war

International dialogue can prevent violence in social and political clashes around the world, leading French sociologist Michel Wieviorka argued yesterday.

At the core of Wieviorka's talk, "From Conflict to Violence," is the contrast between the chaos of violence and the stability of what he called "conflictual relationships." If those relationships — whether embedded in political parties, unions or social movements — allow for the possibility of change, then violence can be kept at bay, Wieviorka said.

The hour-long talk was sponsored by the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. Wieviorka, the director of the Center for Sociological Analysis and Intervention at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, lectured under the auspices of the same program last year.

"We should consider violence as not included in conflict, but as the contrary to conflict," Wieviorka said. In arguing for the embrace of conflict, Wieviorka drew on a range of contemporary and historical events.

When the French labor movement found an institutional home with the founding of a major trade union in 1894, Wieviorka said, a wave of bombings and political assassinations abruptly subsided.

"There is very limited room for real violence when the working-class movement is strong," Wieviorka said.

The formation of trade unions, he said, made possible "negotiation with government, masters of industry," and others.

Cold War

Likewise, Wieviorka argued that even the 40-year Cold War stabilized geopolitical rivalries around the world.

With the end of that conflict in 1989, "it was the beginning of a new era where local wars, genocide, can develop" more easily, he said.

Wieviorka delivered his remarks in accented English but occasionally lapsed into French. He downplayed the universality of his approach under questioning from the audience.

"I don't say this will work in all circumstances," he said. "It is just an image — a general idea."

Wieviorka said the "transnational actors" who perpetrate terrorism could not be expected to submit to ongoing, but nonviolent, agitation. "It's too late to negotiate — these people are only in the mood of war," he said.

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"Do you tell bin Laden he should conflictualize his demands in political, social terms? No. It's war," he stressed.

Coauthor or editor of more than 20 books, Wieviorka wrote "The Making of Terrorism" in 1993. It will be reissued with a new introduction later this year.

Wieviorka, who cut his remarks short to catch a flight back to Paris, concluded with a promise to return, to the delight of the small but largely Francophone audience.

"As I come often to your center [the Wilson School], I wanted to say not adieu, but au revoir," he said.