By G. Jonathan Greenwald
Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor, 1998-99
Reprinted from the Boynton Society Newsletter, a publication for supporters of Björklunden vid Sjön.
"Let's do a poll on what we think about Iraq," said one of my students, and so the 29 participants in the seminar on "Conflict Prevention and Global Terrorism" that I offered at Björklunden late [in the summer of 2002] debated and then proceeded to vote on whether, with the information made available to that point by the Bush Administration, they supported or opposed military action against Saddam Hussein.
That was just one of the spontaneous moments that highlighted a week's consideration of the applicability of diplomacy to a series of world crisis spots -- from the follow-up to September 11 events, to Middle East tensions, the Kashmir issue, Indonesia, and Somalia. I was doing a busman's holiday from my work at the Brussels-based non-governmental organization, the International Crisis Group, which develops political analysis and policy recommendations intended to help governments prevent, contain, and, hopefully, eventually resolve deadly conflicts.
I knew what I was getting into, however, with my class of enthusiastic alumni, friends of Lawrence, and residents of beautiful Door County. After completing 30 years with the U.S. Foreign Service, I was fortunate to spend the 1998-99 academic year as the Stephen Edward Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy teaching on Lawrence's main campus in Appleton. In the course of that year, I had made several visits to the "northern campus," as the Björklunden estate on the shores of Lake Michigan is called.
I had participated on a rainy spring weekend, when a student from Leipzig, with whom I shared reminiscences about the old East Germany, proved to be the only language link between the German and Chinese Clubs, whose student members were not allowed to communicate in English during those two days.
I had seen Björklunden in its autumnal elegance, as well, with a group from Lawrence who traveled by bus from Appleton to attend a recital of classical music put on by Lawrence students -- and walk the shore between steel gray lake and multi-colored forest.
And I had taught my first continuing education seminar in the summer after the Bill Bradley for President campaign ran out of steam and before returning to Europe. That course -- on "The Origins of War," in which we looked closely at what Thucydides wrote about the struggle between Athens and Sparta and at the events that led to the First World War -- was based on one of the courses I had taught to Lawrence undergraduates.
So I knew when I came back across the ocean for another week in Wisconsin what I was letting myself in for: a restorative session of intellect and nature in the unique educational facility that Lawrence has made of the Boyntons' magnificent gift.
Björklunden is a state of mind, a constant reminder that learning is not a chore but a privileged responsibility of the committed citizen. Students love to go there, whether they are undergraduates or retirees, and so do those fortunate enough to be thought able to teach them something, whether from their scholarship or, as in my case, from career experiences.
I have learned from each of my experiences. I came back from my first summer with a student's question going around in my head. "I think I understand why all those countries went to war in August 1914 thinking they could win quickly," she asked me, "but why didn't they seriously try to make peace three months later when anyone could already see it was all going horribly wrong?"
A good question to which I didn't know the answer, and I still mean to research and write the book that may help explain the mystery.
This past summer I went fearing that I had been too ambitious in setting my class an extensive reading list of books, articles, and International Crisis Group reports. I returned to Brussels after a week with a stronger appreciation of how vigorously and responsibly Americans were seeking information with which to understand and cope with a world in which they felt newly vulnerable after the attacks on New York and Washington. The class had indeed done its reading and come prepared. We used all 15 hours of class time -- as well as many more hours over informal meals taken together in the lodge's dining room.
And that is why I will come back again, whenever I can -- to renew old friendships but, above all, to exchange ideas and learn in a special place of beauty and camaraderie. That and perhaps to try again to catch on Lake Michigan my own contribution to the traditional fish boil and to marvel evenings at a sky filled with a Milky Way the like of which is never seen in Washington or Brussels.