Peace Guerilla - Ben Hoffman

Peace Guerilla is a vivid memoir that illuminates the process of dealing with fearsome brutal leaders one would be afraid to have dinner with - and why we should do so. There is tension when Hoffman, as President Jimmy Carter's representative, travels deep into the African bush in Sudan to meet face to face with Joseph Kony, a violent war lord who was abucting children in Uganda to be soldiers in his Lord's Resistance Army and terrorizing the population. There are insights on every page on topics ranging from negotiating techniques, US diplomacy, and the emotional, intellectual and technical effort required to mediate high-stakes peace agreements. And there is the heartbreak of failure and its tragic consequences. Hoffman discovers that a mediator must discard neutrality in favour of a bias for peaceful agreement. A mediator must wage peace with the same intensity and creative tactics as the guerilla fighter pursues violent domination. At the heart of it all is the challenge of transforming power from violence to peace; and that in turn brings our values into sharp focus. Peace Guerilla is exciting, instructive, and conveys a sense of immediacy which is nearly cinematic. Some parts of Ben Hoffman's story will be featured in the upcoming Hollywood movie Girl Solider.