Creative Governance through Winning a War without Guns

I came across an amazing article in XL magazine (Extraordinary Lives) Volume Issue 5 008 , released in June 2008. It tells a of story of how, against the odds, a small New Zealand-led coalition army created a blueprint for lasting peace n Bougainville Island, with soldiers being armed with guitars rather than weapons.

These unarmed soldiers brought about permanent peace to a decade long war that took the lives of more than 20,ooo people in the tiny Bougainville Island . It provides an excellent example of how of how Creative Governance can be applied in a war situation.

In 1997 the New Zealander Defence Force (NZDF) rounded up a coalition of four armies. The mission was led by a New Zealander, Brigadier Roger Mortlock . He believed the solution could only be found in the ‘soft power’ unarmed tactics. The media thought he was crazy, and the newspapers lampooned him.

The Coalition Force entered a hostile environment and the rebel soldiers were ready to shoot them with their guns as the plane landed. With h mounting tension, the hostile rebels then checked inside the plane ’s hold, to find it was full of guitars, volleyballs, medical equipment and vehicles
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The decrepit NZDF vehicles would not start. So, in an inconceivable display of trust and unity,rebel soldiers, who were ready to kill five minutes earlier, dropped their weapons and helped the coalition forces push-start the trucks. The rebels realised that these foreign soldiers were clearly unarmed,and must be coming in peace. Word of his immediately started t o spread throughout the island. The hope for peace permeated Bougainville, as locals saw the peacekeepers bringing their message of peace and love to Bougainville. This extraordinary peace initiative was the world ‘first ’ in using only soft power engagements.

Against all odds the mission was huge success. t is s a fascinating example e of how w an army could d motivate bitter enemies to relinquish their r weapons, and unite them to o work k together to forge lasting peace hat still prevails today.

This extraordinary story has been made into a movie and will hit the screens in the later part of this year. So watch out!


Talk on Creative Governance

Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.

I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net