Pourquoi n’arrivons nous pas à construire une paix durable ? Et si le chemin de la paix venait d’une autre parole ? Une parole partagée ?
Why can’t we build a lasting peace ? « What if the path towards sustainable peace was actually a different one? A shared one? »
Unthinkable !
Have you ever wondered how the unthinkable materializes? If you look up the adjective“unthinkable” in the Cambridge English Dictionary you will find the following definition: «soshocking that it cannot be imagined as possible». A simple definition that does not attach positiveor negative connotations per se. It just describes something so far removed from what weconceive as “normal” that the human psyche cannot even summon it into imagination.
For the vast majority of Europeans born after 1960, the words “war”“ethnic cleansing” and“genocide” fall into the realm of “the unthinkable”. And yet, more and more disillusioned youths grant the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, for instance, zero real credibility. We find the thought of experiencing war first-hand in our lifetime so shocking that it cannot truly be imagined as possible. But we also find the thought of sustainable world peace so utopian, that it cannot be seriously imagined as possible. Both sides of this paradoxical coin coexist.
After World War II, the collective voice of humankind could only articulate two words after the unthinkable horrors that had unfolded: “Never Again”. To this end, international cooperation and International Law acquired new, unprecedented dimensions. Concepts like “Human Rights” and “Crimes Against Humanity” were coined into existence. The previously insufficient attempts at international checks and balances were reckoned with and alchemised into the birth of the United Nations. And yet, we have kept failing ever since.
“War” ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are not cautionary tales that we can analyse in hindsight. In 2026, “war” “armed conflict”“ethnic, cleansing” and “genocide” are events so current that, every single day, we can see them broadcasted live from multiple locations. The unthinkable keeps materializing.
Who am I ?
My name is Teresa Romero and I am the creator of The Untold Power: Storytelling for Peace. Ihave a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. That means I have been privileged enough to experience the corridors of the Palais de Nations in Geneva from the inside. I have been shown first-hand how the most beautiful, yet unfulfilled dream of humanity operates. I have also worked for eight years in the field of International Education. I know the system, its many challenges and shortcomings. And I am a relentless believer in it. I am a firm supporter of the premise that those challenges and shortcomings can be looked at, addressed and redirected towards more efficient pathways.
The Unthinkable storie
Last week, Ratko Mladić, a convicted war criminal, died in The Hague. He was one of the main responsible figures for the Genocide of Srebrenica (1995) and the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-96). His name will forever be drowned in the blood of around 23.000 civilians. In 1994, Ana Mladić, who wanted to be a doctor, killed herself with her father’s gun – allegedly, out of the shame she felt. And yet, the Serbian government has announced that Mladić will have a state funeral full of honours. Lots of ordinary citizens have also been staging public tributes, many of them in Eastern Sarajevo (post-war Sarajevo is a sort of wall-less Cold War Berlin, divided along ethnic/religious lines) and the Drina Valley, where the remains of many Srebrenica Genocide victims are still being searched for. Unthinkable, I know. Those 23.000 civilians are not numbers to me. The Untold Power exists because I have been privileged enough to get to know intimately the homes, families, friends and legacies that survived them. Nothing could ever convince me that Mladić was a good guy, because I am lucky enough to know the stories of the true heroes. The doctors, teachers, actors and musicians that kept Bosnia-Herzegovina alive against the most terrible of odds. A school English lesson to prepare for the future while grenades were thrown atkids if they dared to play outside. A stage musical in a basement whose audience had not eaten a single thing or managed to find drinkable water all day. Unthinkable, I know.
Two days before Mladić’s passing, it was the anniversary of the destruction of Sarajevo’s National Library. This is also the anniversary of Aida Buturović’s murder. She was a 32-year-old, beloved by all librarian who spoke four languages and was about to get married when war erupted. She was killed on her way home after trying to save as many books as she could to help build a better future after the war. But in the history books of schools across Republika Srpska (Bosnia-Herzegovina was divided by the International Community in attempts at ethnically homogeneous territorial entities, that were only so as the result of ethnic cleansing and genocide) they do not learn the story of Aida. Alienated from the other religions and nationalities they share their country with, they learn the story of Ratko, her murderer, distorted and manipulated into a heroic tale.I grew up in Spain. In school we learn about Federico García Lorca, arguably our most internationally renowned poet. He was killed during a Civil War we haven’t fully reckoned with.
His body is in one of the hundreds of mass graves we are yet to find. Nonetheless, there is a political party in the Spanish Parliament that openly advocates for the words “mass grave” to be erased from school curricula and defends that Francisco Franco, a fascist dictator that murdered Spanish citizens for 40 years, was not actually such a bad guy. Quite a few of my fellow citizens. now agree. Unthinkable, I know.
So, how does the unthinkable materialize? I believe that, to an enormous extent, the unthinkable. materializes through pervasive, manipulative storytelling. The human brain possesses an incredible quality: neuroplasticity. Storytelling engineered to serve an agenda of dehumanization uses this feature to our collective detriment. But this begs the question: what if these storytelling mechanisms were properly analyzed? Could we revert them? Could we transform them to serve another agenda, the one against dehumanization? What could be achieved if the International Community’s main institutions placed more focus, more credibility and more funding on Cultural Diplomacy as an armed conflict prevention tool? The tool of strategic storytelling to counteract those dehumanization rhetorics responsible for societies collapsing into the unthinkable.
The Untold Power believes that the human stories that have been silenced, distorted or forgotten are one of our most underrated sources of strength and power. We research them and aim to amplify them through audiovisual media – as well as through workshops that rely on that wonderful neuroplasticity of ours, but this time to our collective gain instead of our collective detriment. Our methods and projects work towards analysing, deconstructing and reconstructing the stories that shape the participants’ own identities and also that of those historically manufactured and “othered” into antagonists by hateful rhetorics.
The Untold Power believes that it is high time International Relations and Diplomacy come back to the ensemble of ordinary world citizens they were born to serve. And we trust storytelling, mediation and Cultural Diplomacy for this endeavour. This can only happen with the full support of those international organizations that we unconditionally believe in – but that we also hold accountable where there’s room for improvement and innovation. We all bear the responsibility to react against dehumanization. To do our absolute best effort against the phenomena of ceaseless, senseless violence. Tirelessly and relentlessly, unthinkable as it may seem.
