Dr. Salma Malik Calls for Leveraging Youth’s Energies for Peacebuilding
On September 27, 2024, the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) hosted Dr. Salma Malik, Associate Professor, Defense & Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, in the eleventh session of the CIF Speaker Series. Conducted online, the session featured Dr. Malik’s thoughts on the topic “Strengthening Peace and Security Initiatives Through Cross-cultural Youth Engagement.” Dr. Malik’s diverse research and teaching experiences, coupled with her engagements with international academic and research institutes, made her talk insightful and useful for CIF’s primary audience: high school students.
The session began with an introduction to CNS, MIIS, and CIF by Masako Toki, CNS’ Senior Project Manager and Research Associate. In her brief remarks, she highlighted CNS’ enduring commitment to, and efforts in, engaging young voices in substantive discussions on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament issues. She also shared the aims and objectives of CIF, as well as the activities and events it has conducted in recent years.
This short introduction was followed by Dr. Malik’s talk, which was centered on youth engagement and training, cross-cultural communications, and critical thinking. She started off with a profound, powerful quote: “Educating young people about peace is planting seeds for a world free from violence and injustice.” This inspirational line preceded a brief survey of the history of youth engagement in the areas of peace and conflict. She said international organizations, especially the United Nations, understood the agency of young people, including females, in shaping the contours of peace. In addition to agreeing with this framing, she argued that today’s youth are much more aware, tech-savvy, and concerned about principles, making it more advantageous to treat them as a major stakeholder. That being said, she noted that, in order to have meaningful, impactful conversations across cultures, old images have to be removed from collective memories. And while acknowledging that doing so is an uphill task, she stressed the need to make the most of whatever opportunities are created. She reminded the audience that taking baby steps and being persistent are critical to bringing about constructive change. Doing this, opined Dr. Malik, is of import “because the youth do not carry the emotional baggage of the past.”
Next, Dr. Malik explained why and how the youth can catalyze change. Reiterating that the youth are a key stakeholder in, and beneficiary of, peace, Dr. Malik emphasized that they have the energy and capacity to create strong constituencies of peace. Further, Dr. Malik spoke to how enterprising and forward-looking the youth are, adding that younger minds can mitigate a debilitating leadership vacuum in the realm of peacebuilding. She said this energy can help counter the impacts of othering. However, to Dr. Malik, the process of youth engagement must begin early in order to avoid a hardening of positions. According to her, the positive use of social media platforms can promote inclusive dialogues and build empathy, with the latter having the power to break down barriers. While mentioning this, Dr. Malik also stressed the need for setting shared goals for shared futures. Notably, she said understanding the other side is far more important than agreeing with it, contending that “efforts must be made to move away from exploring ideologically infested approaches to resolving issues.”
Thereafter, Dr. Malik shed light on the benefits of youth engagements programs, which provide the youth from across the world many an opportunity to engage with, and learn from, their contemporaries having different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. All this, she believed, is critical to reducing both distrust and mistrust. However, she duly noted that, whatever the program, it cannot meaningfully contribute to strengthening peace endeavors without adopting effective strategies. In this regard, she spoke to the importance of expending time and resources on publishing co-authored studies, which will be instrumental in bringing wide-ranging, nuanced perspectives to the table.
Last but not least, she urged the establishment of mentorship programs, with a view to enabling young thinkers to learn from some of the leading scholars and practitioners in the international security field. Doing this, she believed, is critical because seniors in the field owe this to the upcoming generations of scholars.
Her wide-ranging talk was followed by a round of thought-provoking questions from high school attendees. While answering students’ queries, Dr. Malik encouraged them to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to learning as that will allow for making debates and discussions all the more inclusive.
This year’s CIF project is supported by generous funding by the Tom and Sarah Pattison Fund, the SAGA Foundation, the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation Fund, Mr. Gregg Wolpert and other private donors.