Dr. Jonathan Kolieh
Former D9800 Peace Scholar :
Jonathan is one of the Peace Ambassadors nominated by Rotary District 9800. He excited delegates at the recent District Assembly with his description of how the worldwide Peace Ambassadors in his cohort were able to cross continents to resolve issues due to their newfound network and common intent for peaceful solutions.
Jonathan’s PhD Thesis, delivered in March 2012 was: “Should governments compel corporations to contribute to sustainable peace-building in conflict zones around the world?” An exploration of the role corporations can play in building a sustainable peace in conflict zones and how governments, acting alone and in concert, can facilitate corporate peace-building.
He had an early connection with Rotary as his father was a member of the Rotary Club of Bentleigh. After completing his education in Melbourne he went to Israel and attended a Yeshiva based on the West Bank. He said he became aware of the complex conflict issues in Israel.
Back in Melbourne Jonathan began a pro-peace, pro-Hebrew organisation promoting peace consciousness and reaching out to the Arab community in Melbourne.
Jonathan’s attended Berkeley College, California for his 2 year Peace Fellowship. He said Rotary has allocated $95m for the Peace Scholar program and it now transcends the Ambassadorial scholarship program. There are an average of 10 Peace Fellows each year with a choice of seven universities to attend. Jonathan said the Peace Fellows in his year came from all over the world and from all backgrounds.
After Berkeley, Jonathan spent two years in Washington working with former US Ambassador Morton Abromowitz working on conflict resolution, with a goal of influencing US foreign and defence policy and then with the Australian Embassy in Washington as a lobbyist on foreign and defence issues. He said he met many powerful people and realised that there is a role in the world for generalists as well as specialists.
Jonathan said ex Peace Scholars go on to work in many different areas. One such area was establishing a legal basis for the protection of children in areas of conflict.
Jonathan ended by saying that in working towards international conflict resolution, there are three main areas, peace keeping, peace building and peace making – and Rotary does peace building, the most critical area .