Program Specialist Melissa Nozell talks with Smock about his career and his tenure at the Institute, as well as the changes in the peacebuilding field during that time and what still remains to be done to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflict. The interview has been edited for clarity.

Reflecting on this volatile time in the world, what does that say about peacebuilding over the years and where it is heading in the future?

I think we are reminded time and again of how small we are, and how we work around the edges of major conflicts. We haven’t served as mediators in major conflicts. We make contributions, but they are not earth-changing, by-and-large.

There are certainly many more peacebuilding activities going on now than before, but it is still intergovernmental agencies and major governments that are the key actors in international affairs, rather than the peacebuilding community.

What keeps you going and motivated in peacebuilding?

There’s enough accomplished that it is motivation to continue. Collegial relationships with colleagues and with others acting in the field are important motivators to continue. And it’s a continuing learning experience. I always enjoy learning and being involved in international affairs. I’m just constantly learning new things.

Could you reflect for a moment on your career before joining the Institute?

I had wanted to be a development specialist. That’s what I’d trained for. Peacebuilding came later. When I was in college, I had two good African friends, one from Nigeria and one from Ghana. At that time, which was the late 1950s, there was a lot of excitement about the independence of African countries and a lot of hope for what was going to happen. It was exciting to contemplate being involved and engaged in helping Africa to advance. I had no recognition of the traumas that Africa would go through in the last 50 years.

I first went to Africa in 1962, so 52 years ago. I was collecting data for my PhD dissertation. I went to eastern Nigeria and I came back to Cornell for a year to write up my dissertation. And then I went back to Eastern Nigeria as an employee at the Ford Foundation. I spent four years in Nigeria altogether, and then moved to the New York office. Then I went to Ghana for three years, then to Lebanon for 18 months, and back to the New York office, and then Kenya for five years.

At the Ford Foundation, we were able to make grants and initiate activities that made a difference. In development and human rights – not so much peacebuilding – there were lots of opportunities to have an impact, probably more so than in the peacebuilding field, where it’s more difficult to make a contribution. I was one of the first that got Ford, which was the biggest foundation at the time, to engage in grassroots projects. Ford had tended to focus on research and education, rather than direct engagement. A similar shift has occurred at USIP over the years. And I played a direct role in both institutions in getting us to engage.

What brought you to USIP originally?

I was heading up an NGO that was about to go under, and the Institute advertised for a program officer in the grant program. I’d had 16 years at the Ford Foundation, so I had a lot of grant-making experience. I applied for the job and I got it. That was in the summer of 1990. I heartedly subscribed to the goals of the Institute and I was enthusiastic about being part of what was happening here.

How would you describe the Institute when you started?

The Institute was invisible at that time. It was a think tank, a small think tank. We engaged with a lot of scholars, and increasingly with State Department and USAID, but it was mostly scholars at the beginning.

What changes have you witnessed at USIP?

The most dramatic change is our involvement in zones of conflict, which is the focus today, although we still do thinking, analysis, writing and publications. And our engagement with the U.S. government is much more intense than it was then. We weren’t allowed to engage in zones of conflict. We were restricted from it. The Board didn’t want us to do it, and Congress didn’t want us to do it.

As a program officer in grants, I did some traveling to visit grantees, and then we started making a few grants to try to resolve conflicts. It was by grant-making that we made the first efforts to engage with zones of conflict before we had field offices, and before staff were doing things directly in the field.

How large was the USIP staff when you began?

We sat around a table for weekly staff meetings, so it must have been 25 in 1990.

What would you consider to have been your chief accomplishments at USIP?

In terms of peacemaking, one accomplishment is what we did in 2004 with Pastor James Wuye and Imam Mohammad Ashafa in Nigeria. We worked together to bring a peace agreement in a region where 1,000 people had been killed -- Christians and Muslims killing each other, but mostly Christians killing Muslims. We did background research and then did mediation between the two communities. This led to a peace agreement. It resulted in peace in that region ever since; it’s lasted throughout the last 10 years.

I think the extent to which we were able to help build the field of religion and peacemaking is another accomplishment. We were pioneers in the field; there are many more actors now. At the same time, helping to encourage the U.S. government to be more engaged with religious actors overseas, which has now become doctrine for the State Department, is a success.

Publishing six books during my time at USIP has been a high point, and I’m hoping the forthcoming USIP history book will make seven. Moving to the new building was not my accomplishment, but it was an exciting period for the Institute. This mostly lifted our visibility, as well as provided a nice place to work.

Do you have any final reflections on your career at USIP?

I have tried to sustain the original mandate, namely to be our own masters in promoting peace, and not just to be contractors for the U.S. government, to set our own trajectory and to set our own priorities.

Melissa Nozell is a program specialist in USIP’s Center for Religion and Peacebuilding.