Politics Is about Relationship A Blueprint for the Citizens’ Century

In this straightforward exploration of core problems facing humanity, Harold Saunders outlines how concerned citizens can bring about social and political change. Using examples from the U.S. to South Africa, Tajikistan to China, this book is full of real stories of how building 'relationship' among people can empower citizens outside government.

Introduction: Meeting the Challenges of a World in Crisis: Engaging Whole Bodies Politic Our Starting Points Politics Is About...? A Proper World View, Appropriate for Its Time The Paradigm and the Concept The Relational Paradigm: A Multilevel Political Process of Continuous Interaction The Concept of Relationship Dialogue Makes it Happen A Different Way of Thinking - Another Way of Relating Transformation in South Africa: A People Engaged Public Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in Tajikistan Power and Public Work in West Virginia Citizens Talk about the Russia-U.S. Relationship Conducting the China-U.S. Relationship: A Diplomat's View The Citizens' Century What Difference Does It Make? What Makes This Difference?

Harold H. Saunders is Founder and Chairman of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, Director of International Affairs at the Kettering Foundation, former member of the National Security Council Staff and former Director of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. He was US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Carter Administration. He flew on the Kissinger shuttles in 1974– 75 and was a principal drafter of the Camp David accords in 1978. Since leaving governmentin 1981, he has developed a processcalled Sustained Dialogue from intensive experience in nonofficial dialogues. He is author of The Other Walls: The Arab-Israeli Peace Process in a Global Perspective, A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts, and Sustained Dialogue in Conflicts: Transformation and Change.