John Marks’ Journey from Provocateur to Peacemaker

It seems that almost everywhere in the world, there is conflict, distrust, and unrest — Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, and even here in the US.

Oftentimes, any kind of diplomacy, cooperation, agreement, detente or finding a common ground seems impossible. But what if there was a different way?

What if there was an organization that holds as its mission, “to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions?”

What if those tactics included dialogue training, joint development projects, public art projects, sports leagues, and social impact entertainment via radio, TV, film, and print?

Well, these are all accomplishments that John Marks has achieved in his work as President of Search for Common Ground, a peacebuilding NGO he founded in 1982 and built with his wife Susan Collin Marks, predicated on social entrepreneurship.

Search for Common Ground (or just “Search” for short) came into being at the height of the Cold War by John, a former diplomat and US Foreign Service Officer at the US State Department. The first major project was…