His study led him to the conclusion that conflict often results from a sense of insufficient recognition. People learn to respect others, he said, by receiving respect themselves.

Historical analysis also suggests that the rise of nationalism is a response to humiliation and defeat, he said, citing the growth of strong nationalist sentiment in Nazi Germany.

Glover has devised projects exploring resolution to sustained conflict, such as the present conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“We ought to be working as educators. We ought to be thinking about ways by which we can liberate people from these cycles of violence,” he said.

In the future, Glover said he hopes to bring together people representing two sides of a major conflict and ask them to study another significant conflict together. Exploring the causes of enmity together, he said, may help the participants to resolve their own conflicts.

Glover also suggested allowing two combative groups to make films representing their own points of view on a point of contention. He would then present the two films together and ask participants to evaluate the objectivity in each before making a new, more accurate film––the “film that God might make”––with both sides’ cooperation.

“Or, if you don’t believe in God,” he added, “the film that Tolstoy might make.”

Cabot House co-sponsored the lecture, part of the annual Atherton series initiated to explore ethical issues. James H. Ware, master of Cabot House, said that the series reflects Harvard’s increasing interest in bringing ethicists into the University.