Under the mask

By Kerri Kennedy

I joined the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) eight years ago. Soon after, our Washington D.C. office, together with the Friends Committee for National Legislation, developed a provocative 50-year vision for a just U.S. foreign policy called shared security. It is a compelling vision that I have been thinking deeply about and sharing through my work ever since.

What do we mean by shared security? It is simply a paradigm for promoting the safety and well-being of people throughout the world, based on our human understanding that shared problems require shared solutions, and that our interests are best served when we foster peaceful and just relationships together. It is essentially the idea that “my peace is your peace.” The understanding that peace and security are, by their very nature, indivisible. A threat to co-existence in one corner of the world is a threat to our communal safety everywhere.

Never before have the fates of individual communities and nations been so intertwined, exemplified by the current pandemic. And never before has our safety and well-being depended so much on the safety and well-being of others. A new approach is required; an approach where we commit to our mutual well-being and equitable access to resources and justice.