Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace REPORT ON THE VISIT OF ROMEO DALLAIRE Senator and Retired Lt.-Gen Romeo Dallaire shared his insights into Canada's role as a compassionate and self-giving middle power to a packed audience of approximately 1000 Albertans on Friday evening March 10th. We hope in time to have a transcript of some of his comments and pictures of the event to display for you. Suffice it to say that the Senator's address, made with the help of slides and no apparent notes, was an ardent appeal to Canadians to reevaluate our role on the international scene. The retired leader of peacekeeping forces in Rwanda spoke of a future in which new tools were required as well as a willingness to make significant sacrifices for the future of all humanity. His was not an easy solution given the changing complexity of internecine war and the use of indiscriminate terrorism, legal mercenaries and child soldiers. Dallaire in his new positions as Canadian Senator and advisor on several major Federal committees dealing with Africa and international affairs believes Canada's role in its military/peacekeeping operations has been a history of necessary, but devoted sacrifice. This history enables us to carry on with the same intent but in places where even more care, training and practical skills are demanded. What Canadian forces will have to face are those who engage in ruthlessness, under the vicious leadership of local "dictators" who received so much of their training from the elite of European and American university graduate programs. Our advantages may well be (1) that we make sacrifices as a middle power, one that is known internationally for so doing. We are not seen in any way as embodying imperialist political intentions, and (2) The phenomenal growth of influence of Non-Government Organizations (NGO's) as a major tool for dedicated and responsible contributions to the resolution of conflict-it is not the time for solutions without such deep and generous commitment. POST SCRIPT: The sell-out crowd, moved by Dallaire's deliberations, has also provided a firmer financial base for the International Peace Research Association's ability to bring to fruition a successful conference in the same building at the UofC. On numerous occasions the Senator spoke to the importance of this gathering of peace scholars in Calgary come June 29th. As testimony to his sense of its significance he generously donated a substantial portion of his speaker's fee to that end. Pieces of Peace