The world is becoming more peaceful overall but remains ''a very brutal and harsh place'' for most of its population, Prof Kevin Clements says.
Prof Clements, the director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, was commenting at the first of two university graduation ceremonies held at the Regent Theatre, Dunedin, on Saturday.
Although the world was, in general, becoming more peaceful, there was still too much violence and ''too many people who desire domination in their interpersonal, group or trans-national relations''.
''There are also far too many people consumed with grief and revenge for past harm and some who still derive sadistic pleasure from hurting others.''
Prof Clements told graduates at the 1pm ceremony that the world was ''full of opportunity'' but their generation would be confronted with global warming and rising sea levels, ''a widening gap between rich and poor, and many new and diabolical ways of killing each other''.
''One of the very specific social challenges you will face will be how to sustain and nurture direct face-to-face relationships in the face of remote networked alternatives.''
He believed Otago graduates would ''negotiate most of life's challenges with relative equanimity''.
But others who were ''not so fortunate'' would live in ''twilight zones, around the corners of your more privileged worlds''.
''They will suffer materially, socially and politically from inequality, marginalisation, disrespect and humiliation.''
''Those of us who are relatively privileged, therefore, have to make sure that our wealth, status and intelligence are used to ensure that everyone can realise their full human potential.''
Prof Clements added that love was not ''an optional extra''- ''it lies at the heart of what it is to be fully human''.
Otago graduate Prof Helen Heslop emphasised not only the value of good career planning, but also the need for flexibility, during a talk to graduates at a second graduation ceremony, at 4pm.
A US-based medical researcher, Prof Heslop said she had earlier aimed to be a haematologist in a New Zealand coastal city but instead she now directed ''experimental cell and gene therapy studies in a southern city in Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico''.
New Zealand's Pacific coast was much more attractive than the Gulf of Mexico, and the fish also tasted better in New Zealand.
''But doing what you want with your life is always going to entail some compromise.''
Prof Heslop, who is a professor of medicine and paediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, urged graduates to add to the motto of Otago University - Sapere Aude, or dare to be wise - another concept: Mutare aude, dare to change, as ''new circumstances and technology combine to alter the world around you''.
An honorary doctor of science degree was conferred on Prof Heslop at the graduation.
