Analysis | Achieving Lasting Peace in the Horn of Africa

By Arlene J. Schar and Dr. David Leffler

ANALYSIS – The unrest of Ethiopia’s ongoing turbulent transition threatens to tear apart the country’s sovereignty and unleash a protracted civil war which could ultimately affect all countries in the Horn of Africa (HoA). While a diplomatic solution may not be immediately evident, a scientifically verified approach exists that can ultimately assist diplomats in finding a solution and achieving lasting peace in not only in Ethiopia but the entire HoA.

Invincible Defense Technology (IDT) is a brain-based approach that has been thoroughly field-tested in numerous world battlegrounds. Utilizing Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) as a preventive defense model, it is capable of defusing tensions and violence to bring about peace.

TM is a non-religious, non-sectarian mental procedure shown by scientific research to increase brain integration, intelligence, creativity, and learning ability, and to decrease personal anxiety, stress and tension. Added to this practice to increase the power of its peace-promoting influence is a more advanced procedure, the TM-Sidhi® program. When practiced by a large group, twice a day, seven days a week, these programs together reduce the built-up high levels of societal collective stress that give rise to war, violence, crime and terrorism. Such groups can be established within the military or within any large organizations such as schools or universities.

IDT works by utilizing our natural human brain mechanisms, the most powerful natural resource possessed by every individual in every nation on earth. The beneficial transformational effects of IDT have been statistically confirmed numerous times to decrease and prevent conflict, violence and terrorism and to boost the economy.

Twenty-three peer-reviewed studies carried out in both developed and developing nations validate its effectiveness. When large assemblies of civilian IDT experts gathered during the years 1983 – 1985, international conflict decreased 32%, terrorism-related casualties decreased 72%, and overall violence was reduced in nations without intrusion by other governments. This coherence-creating effect has been documented on a global scale in a study published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation.

IDT, unlike any other defense technology, does not use violence in an attempt to quell violence. It is a more civilized approach, one especially worthy of nations that abhor violence as a means to power. IDT uniquely addresses the root cause of violence – the built-up stress in the individual and collective consciousness. IDT uniquely neutralizes the underlying tensions between contending groups, which produce the stressors, frustration and civil dissatisfaction that prevail in the general population. When the IDT methodology is applied, stress levels throughout the population are rapidly reduced. By eliminating the root cause of insurgency, violent outbreaks are ended, pre-empted, and prevented in the future. In an environment of lowered stress, even staunch adversaries find diplomatic ways to cooperate and overcome long-standing differences. IDT is effective because it targets root causes rather than effects.

Experience with IDT in other war-torn nations has demonstrated increases in economic incentive and growth, entrepreneurship, and individual creativity. With increased civic calm, people’s aspirations are raised and a more productive and balanced society emerges. Such a society abhors violence as a means for change or as an expression of discontent. With this, the grounds for terrorism are eliminated. This change takes place within a few days or weeks after IDT is introduced. The changes are measurable from such statistics as crime rates, accidents, hospital admissions, infant mortality, etc.

Rapid Transformation Through IDT

Such coherence-creating groups have achieved these measurable positive benefits in society within a short period of time. Modern statistical methods used in this research show a low probability of any explanation other than a causal influence of the technology. The IDT approach has been used during wartime, resulting in the reduction of fighting, decreased numbers of deaths and casualties, and improved progress toward resolving the conflict peacefully. The war in Lebanon in 1983 was dramatically impacted in a peaceful way by an IDT Intervention Group. A thoroughly documented study of this phenomenon was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and summaries of follow-up studies were published in the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality and the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

A study published in May 2019 in Studies in Asian Social Science found that IDT implementation by students trained in advanced TM techniques resulted in a 96% decline in sociopolitical violence in war-torn Cambodia as compared to violence in the preceding three years.

The Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP) (https://www.gusp.org) is a global group of eminent scientists and leaders dedicated to support alternative, peaceful means of conflict resolution. Members of GUSP have endorsed the IDT approach, including Yukio Hatoyama, former prime minister of Japan; former president of Mozambique Joachim Chissano (who applied IDT programs to end that nation’s civil war); Lt. General (Ret.) Vasyl Krutov, former chief of the Ukraine Anti-Terrorism Center; retired Ecuadorian Lt. General José Villamil (who also applied IDT to end conflict between Ecuador and Peru).

While this approach may seem too simple to be true, sometimes the simplest approach is the most effective. We recommend the following books: An Antidote to Violence: Evaluating the Evidence, by Barry Spivack and Patricia Anne Saunders, and The Coherence Effect by Robert Keith Wallace, Jay Marcus, Christopher Clark. These new books detail in depth the extensive supporting scientific research for utilizing TM to dispel violence.

The Time for Action is Now

If civil war breaks out in Ethiopia it could spill out into the neighboring HoA countries of Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Sudan. Even if these countries are fortunate that this does not happen; it is still possible the refugees could flood across their borders. If these militaries were to quickly establish cost-effective IDT Prevention Wings, the results would be cessation of high tensions, reversal of years of mistrust, alleviation of hatred, greater stability, and the permanent prevention of unrest, war, terrorism and crime. Extensive scientific research objectively says, “Yes, this system works.” Why not use it? Time is running out. Leaders of HoA have no time to lose as the very fabric of society collapses and chaos spills into surrounding territories, perhaps even triggering another world war. IDT is the twenty-first century’s leading-edge defense system. These HoA militaries would be wise to adopt this effective IDT approach as a solution to their issues and the resulting societal discord before it becomes irreversibly too late.

Arlene J. Schar has served as Dr. Leffler’s Executive Assistant at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) StrongMilitary.org since 2015. She has co-authored and edited many of Dr. Leffler’s articles. Dr. David Leffler served as an Associate of the Proteus Management Group at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College. Currently, he serves as the Executive Director at CAMS.

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