Peace Partnership
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Inquiry, Thought, Action
Working for Peace without Recreating War
Peace Partnership International president & CEO Dot Maver and Miki Kashtan of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication co-authored an article published in the March 2008 issue of Tikkun Magazine entitled, "Working for Peace without Recreating War." The article addresses the role of nonviolent communication in helping peace activists promoting a culture of peace "talk their walk" while communicating about a culture of peace with those who do not agree with them. The article begins:
Imagine that you are talking to a state legislator about peace and reducing violence, and in
response you hear: “Are you another one of those anti-war people? Don’t you understand we are waging war for peace?” How would you respond?
Like most people who hope to bring about peace for everyone on our planet, you have
likely had conversations with people who hold very different opinions from your own.
Whether with family members, in work places, during a demonstration, or even within
your own activist groups, these conversations often heat up and turn into arguments.
Despite our desire for peace, we continue to perpetuate the very thing we want to
transcend.
Karen Johnson, Illinois State Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Peace Campaign, sees the Iraq War as a wakeup call for all of us, a call to use the tools available today to prevent violence at all levels tomorrow. She dedicates these thoughts to her Viet Nam vet friend, who passed away recently.
On October 27, 2006, at Georgetown University, the Peace Alliance Foundation initiated a roundtable discussion, “Strategies for Peace Creation,” which gathered seven experts and practitioners in the fields of and relating to conflict resolution, human security and peacebuilding. The roundtable participants laid out what a government-level infrastructure for human security and peacebuilding would do. Each participant cited specific, proven programs and initiatives in his or her own field that would have a significant impact if replicated at a national level or backed by the federal government. Read the executive summary of the roundtable here.
Hope on the Horizon: Making Cents of Peacebuilding
This paper by Marianne Perez provides a snapshot of the current state of violence in the United States and a sampling of proven, statistically verifiable programs that successfully prevent and reduce violence. While these programs remain hampered by inadequate and inconsistent funding, lack of resources, and limited geographic reach, the fact remains that they are beneficial for Americans’ social well-being and for Americans’ financial bottom line.
The good news about violence in the United States is that Americans have found incredibly innovative and resourceful ways to address violence and its root causes. All that is missing, as noted in the paper's conclusions, is an infrastructure to give these programs more visibility and viability, allocate them more funding resources, and to make them a matter of local, state, and national policy.
Click HERE to view and download Making Cents of Peacebuilding without appendix. Click HERE to view and download Making Cents of Peacebuilding with appendix of FBI data on incidence of violence in America and of fact sheets on violence prevention programs that are working.
Historical Perspective: Governing Ourselves in a Culture of Peace
There is a long history, back to antiquity, about peace and the use of nonviolent conflict resolution approaches in human societies. This slide show, Governing Ourselves in a Culture of Peace, traces that history, with special attention to the United States and the current legislation in Congress to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Nonviolence. Such a department would have as its goal to nurture and represent in government the perspective of a culture of peace, where peace is an organizing principle of society.
