The Peace
with General Roméo Dallaire
Hosted by Allan Thompson
In Person Streaming Politics History Memoir
Here is the wisdom of a true elder—one who has struggled to be free in the horror and beauty of what he has come to know in his hard-lived life. In his freedom, Dallaire has chosen ‘the good.’ Here is his guide. It is searing, honest and truly inspiring. Read, deliberate and choose.
We are honoured to be hosting a conversation between international humanitarian icon and bestselling author General Roméo Dallaire and our host, Allan Thompson, Director of the School of Journalism and Communications at Carleton University.
In The Peace: A Warrior's Journey, Roméo Dallaire shows us the past, present and future of war through the prism of his own life. Trained in classic warfare during the Cold War era of mutual deterrence, Dallaire in good faith commanded the UN’s peacekeeping mission for Rwanda in 1994, only to see the country abandoned and descend into the hell of genocide. The battered, tortured warrior who emerged from that catastrophe grew determined to help repair the new world disorder—to prevent genocide, abolish the use of child soldiers, and find ways to intervene in, even prevent, conflicts in defence of humanity. And so Dallaire helped advance the doctrines of Responsibility to Protect and the Will to Intervene only to witness those initiatives falter because of the same old power politics, national self-interest and general indifference that had allowed the genocide in Rwanda to unfold unchecked.
In his final act, Dallaire has become a warrior working towards a better future in which those old paradigms are rejected and replaced. He calls out the elements that undermine true security because they reinforce the dangerous, self-interested belief that “balance” of power and truces are the best we can do. Too often we say we are “at peace” because the bombs are falling elsewhere and we, ourselves, are not under attack. Dallaire shows us a path, instead, to what he calls “the peace,” a state where, above all else, humanity values the ties that bind us and the planet together—and acts accordingly.
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