Reflections on violence, dialogue, and the path to understanding ahead of the 2025 AIE Conference: Educating for Peace and Social Justice
This morning I woke to a post mourning the death of Charlie Kirk and celebrating his legacy as a “great peacemaker.”
The taking of any human life is abhorrent, a tragedy for loved ones and the communities that hold them. Yet the word peacemaker sits uneasily alongside a career of deliberately divisive rhetoric. Can we call someone a peacemaker while they fuel conflict? And is that the right lens through which to view Charlie Kirk?
As Moira Donegan wrote in The Guardian on 14 September,
“Charlie Kirk’s ‘debates’ were aggressive, unequal, trolling affairs… not the kind of fair deliberation that democracy relies on. It was a mockery of those things.”
These words prompt a larger question about how we use language and what we choose to elevate.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, calls for “peaceful and inclusive societies,” where people live free of fear and violence regardless of ethnicity, faith or orientation. It is a vision of shared safety and dignity.
Charlie Kirk’s murder reflects the worst of humanity. Condemning violence is essential, but so is recognising the power of words and actions. Words do not directly cause violence, yet they can cultivate hate, othering and dehumanisation, the fertile ground in which violence breeds.
I do not believe violence is ever justified. I do believe, however, that focusing on peace and love as fundamental human values offers a different path.
Across the world, polarisation deepens, with right wing protests in London, binary reactions to Kirk’s murder in the United States, and armed conflicts raging in Afghanistan, Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. We must do better. We must listen to understand, not simply to respond.
The International Baccalaureate’s mission speaks powerfully here,
“To encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”
This is the path to a better future, recognising our shared humanity while engaging, patiently and bravely, with those whose views may differ radically from our own.
My thoughts remain with Charlie Kirk’s family. Though his views diverged profoundly from mine, I grieve the loss of life and the divisions it exposes. May his death remind us of the urgent need to reject violence and to pursue the less trodden path of intercultural understanding and respect.
As the International Day of Peace rapidly approaches and I prepare to facilitate the leadership strand at the 2025 AIE Conference, Educating for Peace and Social Justice: The Role of International Education in The Hague this September, I hold fast to the belief that education, dialogue and empathy can help us create a more peaceful world.
I look forward to learning together and forging a new path to peace.
“Great leaders inspire greatness in others” 