LEXINGTON, KY - Lexingtonians may not completely realize how cosmopolitan and global their fair city truly is, thanks to its best-kept secret: the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. With its distinguished faculty, its impressive record of scholarship and its creative approach to teaching and learning, the School is widely regarded as one of the top programs in its field. It may be better known in places like Brussels and Beirut than in the Bluegrass.
The School is now leveraging its relationships among global leaders to offer something more to the local community. They've partnered with an organization called Search for Common Ground, a global non-profit that helps communities around the world address conflict through more collaborative and constructive means. The organization was founded in 1982 and boldly states its mission is "to transform the way the world deals with conflict: away from adversarial approaches, toward cooperative solutionsÖ our goal is to make common ground the common thing."
Common Ground not only works to help people understand their differences, but also to help them recognize what interests and values they share. Not surprisingly, they often focus on the things that cross boundaries transcend cultures.
Lexington is already becoming a focal point for bringing people together as it prepares for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Amid all the talk about construction and resources, many Lexingtonians are already preparing to welcome people from countries across the globe - some of whom may be visiting America for the first time. Further, the mark Lexington leaves on history may very well have to do with the spirit of inclusion. The 2010 Games marks the first time that roughly 135 para-equestrian athletes from 35 countries will join the more than 800 other equestrian athletes, and all eight disciplines of equestrian sport will be featured together at the highest level.
Leaders of groups like Common Ground know that sports can serve as a powerful and unifying tool. They worked with USA Wrestling to take an American team to Iran. In Burundi, Common Ground organizes soccer tournament between young Hutus and Tutsis, the opposing factions in the Rwandan genocide.
Of course, sports like soccer or wrestling are not the only things that people from different cultures enjoy. Common Ground has developed a stellar reputation sponsoring the arts as well. They have organized dance performances, sponsored live plays, and produced film festivals for groups as prestigious as the United Nations.
Together the Patterson School and Common Ground are hosting a film festival that features films from what many now call the "Arc of Conflict" - the Middle East and North Africa. The films focus on how people facing crisis in that part of the world work to overcome powerful prejudices, denounce violence, and promote peace.
The film festival gives Lexingtonians a chance to learn more about how people address strident conflict, and perhaps help prepare the city to greet the rest of the world. It also gives the Patterson School an opportunity to perhaps re-introduce itself to the rest of the local community and demonstrate the value it brings to Lexington.
"This is one of the first of several major initiatives we're rolling out in preparation for our 50th anniversary celebration," says Dr. Robert Farley, a member of the Patterson School faculty and one of the organizers of the film festival. "It represents a step forward in the Patterson School's outreach to the University community and to Lexington. It's an opportunity for us to demonstrate in, literally, dramatic terms the relevance of foreign policy and international affairs."
The festival runs from late September through early December. It features award-winning films that have been screened at some of the most celebrated and prestigious festivals in the world.
While the films obviously focus on conflict in another part of the world, the lessons they provide could be helpful to solving problems closer to home. "The selection of films is focused around the 'Arc of Conflict,' but concentrates on how people in conflictual situations can often find hope in common experience, and common ground," says Dr. Farley. As Americans and Kentuckians look at the important issues of health care, the environment, and immigration, they might want to look at what unites us and start there.
David Wescott is a vice president at APCO Worldwide, a global public affairs firm headquartered in Washington DC.