David Hamburg on Giving Peace a Chance

When Dr. David A. Hamburg led the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the 1980s and ‘90s, he drew on his roots as a physician to foster projects and research that advanced a simply stated goal: “the prevention of rotten outcomes.”

Now in his late 80s, Hamburg is still putting his medical instincts to work. He is discovering new ways to use early-prevention methods to avoid deadly conflict and enable healthy human development.

Hamburg spoke at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on May 3 about his new book, Give Peace a Chance. His son and co-author, filmmaker Eric Hamburg, joined him at the event, along with two Harvard friends, Law School Dean Martha Minow and Belfer Center Director Graham Allison.

Hamburg fleshed out the “six pillars of prevention” that he elucidates in the book as essential to tackle current challenges to peace, from the Arab Spring and violence in Syria to Iran’s showdown with the West. The six pillars are education, early action, democracy building, socioeconomic development, human rights and arms control.

Hamburg argued for “early, early prevention to the extent humanly possible,” starting with childhood teaching to prevent kids from learning violence and hatred. “My focus increasingly has been on early prevention, beginning with child development. Preventive diplomacy is already pretty late, compared to where I start,” Hamburg said.

He said organizations should look for points of entry where leverage is greatest and where help is tangible. It is important, he said, to “avoid any sense of superiority.”

Hamburg has built a lifelong resume of extraordinary leadership in fostering human development and peacemaking. He was chief of adult psychiatry for the National Institutes of Health, was a professor at Stanford from 1961 to 1976, later taught at Harvard and was chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His 15 years at the helm of the Carnegie Corporation from 1982 to 1997 furthered an array of initiatives in health and security in developing countries as well as global conflict prevention.

Allison, who moderated the discussion, called Hamburg “the pioneer of prevention.” Allison praised Hamburg’s support for arms control efforts during the Cold War and immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union, when the danger of loose Russian nuclear weapons alarmed proliferation experts at the Belfer Center and elsewhere. The Carnegie Corporation poured millions into research and project grants that helped keep the weapons safe.

Minow recalled Hamburg’s brave work in 1975 when he flew from Stanford to Africa and personally oversaw negotiations that brought the safe release of students being held hostage by armed rebels in Zaire. Minow said that achievement reflected Hamburg’s “combination of optimism and urgency in this field.”

“David makes it seem that it’s possible to solve some of these vast problems,” Minow said.

Watch video of event: