how can we achieve peace in the world essay

December 2, 2021

Peace Is More Than War’s Absence, and New Research Explains How to Build It

A new project measures ways to promote positive social relations among groups

By Peter T. Coleman , Allegra Chen-Carrel & Vincent Hans Michael Stueber

PeopleImages/Getty Images

Today, the misery of war is all too striking in places such as Syria, Yemen, Tigray, Myanmar and Ukraine. It can come as a surprise to learn that there are scores of sustainably peaceful societies around the world, ranging from indigenous people in the Xingu River Basin in Brazil to countries in the European Union. Learning from these societies, and identifying key drivers of harmony, is a vital process that can help promote world peace.

Unfortunately, our current ability to find these peaceful mechanisms is woefully inadequate. The Global Peace Index (GPI) and its complement the Positive Peace Index (PPI) rank 163 nations annually and are currently the leading measures of peacefulness. The GPI, launched in 2007 by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), was designed to measure negative peace , or the absence of violence, destructive conflict, and war. But peace is more than not fighting. The PPI, launched in 2009, was supposed to recognize this and track positive peace , or the promotion of peacefulness through positive interactions like civility, cooperation and care.

Yet the PPI still has many serious drawbacks. To begin with, it continues to emphasize negative peace, despite its name. The components of the PPI were selected and are weighted based on existing national indicators that showed the “strongest correlation with the GPI,” suggesting they are in effect mostly an extension of the GPI. For example, the PPI currently includes measures of factors such as group grievances, dissemination of false information, hostility to foreigners, and bribes.

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The index also lacks an empirical understanding of positive peace. The PPI report claims that it focuses on “positive aspects that create the conditions for a society to flourish.” However, there is little indication of how these aspects were derived (other than their relationships with the GPI). For example, access to the internet is currently a heavily weighted indicator in the PPI. But peace existed long before the internet, so is the number of people who can go online really a valid measure of harmony?

The PPI has a strong probusiness bias, too. Its 2021 report posits that positive peace “is a cross-cutting facilitator of progress, making it easier for businesses to sell.” A prior analysis of the PPI found that almost half the indicators were directly related to the idea of a “Peace Industry,” with less of a focus on factors found to be central to positive peace such as gender inclusiveness, equity and harmony between identity groups.

A big problem is that the index is limited to a top-down, national-level approach. The PPI’s reliance on national-level metrics masks critical differences in community-level peacefulness within nations, and these provide a much more nuanced picture of societal peace . Aggregating peace data at the national level, such as focusing on overall levels of inequality rather than on disparities along specific group divides, can hide negative repercussions of the status quo for minority communities.

To fix these deficiencies, we and our colleagues have been developing an alternative approach under the umbrella of the Sustaining Peace Project . Our effort has various components , and these can provide a way to solve the problems in the current indices. Here are some of the elements:

Evidence-based factors that measure positive and negative peace. The peace project began with a comprehensive review of the empirical studies on peaceful societies, which resulted in identifying 72 variables associated with sustaining peace. Next, we conducted an analysis of ethnographic and case study data comparing “peace systems,” or clusters of societies that maintain peace with one another, with nonpeace systems. This allowed us to identify and measure a set of eight core drivers of peace. These include the prevalence of an overarching social identity among neighboring groups and societies; their interconnections such as through trade or intermarriage; the degree to which they are interdependent upon one another in terms of ecological, economic or security concerns; the extent to which their norms and core values support peace or war; the role that rituals, symbols and ceremonies play in either uniting or dividing societies; the degree to which superordinate institutions exist that span neighboring communities; whether intergroup mechanisms for conflict management and resolution exist; and the presence of political leadership for peace versus war.

A core theory of sustaining peace . We have also worked with a broad group of peace, conflict and sustainability scholars to conceptualize how these many variables operate as a complex system by mapping their relationships in a causal loop diagram and then mathematically modeling their core dynamics This has allowed us to gain a comprehensive understanding of how different constellations of factors can combine to affect the probabilities of sustaining peace.

Bottom-up and top-down assessments . Currently, the Sustaining Peace Project is applying techniques such as natural language processing and machine learning to study markers of peace and conflict speech in the news media. Our preliminary research suggests that linguistic features may be able to distinguish between more and less peaceful societies. These methods offer the potential for new metrics that can be used for more granular analyses than national surveys.

We have also been working with local researchers from peaceful societies to conduct interviews and focus groups to better understand the in situ dynamics they believe contribute to sustaining peace in their communities. For example in Mauritius , a highly multiethnic society that is today one of the most peaceful nations in Africa, we learned of the particular importance of factors like formally addressing legacies of slavery and indentured servitude, taboos against proselytizing outsiders about one’s religion, and conscious efforts by journalists to avoid divisive and inflammatory language in their reporting.

Today, global indices drive funding and program decisions that impact countless lives, making it critical to accurately measure what contributes to socially just, safe and thriving societies. These indices are widely reported in news outlets around the globe, and heads of state often reference them for their own purposes. For example, in 2017 , Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, though he and his country were mired in corruption allegations, referenced his country’s positive increase on the GPI by stating, “Receiving such high praise from an institute that once named this country the most violent in the world is extremely significant.” Although a 2019 report on funding for peace-related projects shows an encouraging shift towards supporting positive peace and building resilient societies, many of these projects are really more about preventing harm, such as grants for bolstering national security and enhancing the rule of law.

The Sustaining Peace Project, in contrast, includes metrics for both positive and negative peace, is enhanced by local community expertise, and is conceptually coherent and based on empirical findings. It encourages policy makers and researchers to refocus attention and resources on initiatives that actually promote harmony, social health and positive reciprocity between groups. It moves away from indices that rank entire countries and instead focuses on identifying factors that, through their interaction, bolster or reduce the likelihood of sustaining peace. It is a holistic perspective.  

Tracking peacefulness across the globe is a highly challenging endeavor. But there is great potential in cooperation between peaceful communities, researchers and policy makers to produce better methods and metrics. Measuring peace is simply too important to get only half-right. 

Essay on Peace

500 words essay peace.

Peace is the path we take for bringing growth and prosperity to society. If we do not have peace and harmony, achieving political strength, economic stability and cultural growth will be impossible. Moreover, before we transmit the notion of peace to others, it is vital for us to possess peace within. It is not a certain individual’s responsibility to maintain peace but everyone’s duty. Thus, an essay on peace will throw some light on the same topic.

Importance of Peace

History has been proof of the thousands of war which have taken place in all periods at different levels between nations. Thus, we learned that peace played an important role in ending these wars or even preventing some of them.

In fact, if you take a look at all religious scriptures and ceremonies, you will realize that all of them teach peace. They mostly advocate eliminating war and maintaining harmony. In other words, all of them hold out a sacred commitment to peace.

It is after the thousands of destructive wars that humans realized the importance of peace. Earth needs peace in order to survive. This applies to every angle including wars, pollution , natural disasters and more.

When peace and harmony are maintained, things will continue to run smoothly without any delay. Moreover, it can be a saviour for many who do not wish to engage in any disrupting activities or more.

In other words, while war destroys and disrupts, peace builds and strengthens as well as restores. Moreover, peace is personal which helps us achieve security and tranquillity and avoid anxiety and chaos to make our lives better.

How to Maintain Peace

There are many ways in which we can maintain peace at different levels. To begin with humankind, it is essential to maintain equality, security and justice to maintain the political order of any nation.

Further, we must promote the advancement of technology and science which will ultimately benefit all of humankind and maintain the welfare of people. In addition, introducing a global economic system will help eliminate divergence, mistrust and regional imbalance.

It is also essential to encourage ethics that promote ecological prosperity and incorporate solutions to resolve the environmental crisis. This will in turn share success and fulfil the responsibility of individuals to end historical prejudices.

Similarly, we must also adopt a mental and spiritual ideology that embodies a helpful attitude to spread harmony. We must also recognize diversity and integration for expressing emotion to enhance our friendship with everyone from different cultures.

Finally, it must be everyone’s noble mission to promote peace by expressing its contribution to the long-lasting well-being factor of everyone’s lives. Thus, we must all try our level best to maintain peace and harmony.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Peace

To sum it up, peace is essential to control the evils which damage our society. It is obvious that we will keep facing crises on many levels but we can manage them better with the help of peace. Moreover, peace is vital for humankind to survive and strive for a better future.

FAQ of Essay on Peace

Question 1: What is the importance of peace?

Answer 1: Peace is the way that helps us prevent inequity and violence. It is no less than a golden ticket to enter a new and bright future for mankind. Moreover, everyone plays an essential role in this so that everybody can get a more equal and peaceful world.

Question 2: What exactly is peace?

Answer 2: Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in which there is no hostility and violence. In social terms, we use it commonly to refer to a lack of conflict, such as war. Thus, it is freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups.

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• World Peace

A Human Approach to World Peace

When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one's precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world.   It is ironic that the more serious problems emanate from the more industrially advanced societies. Science and technology have worked wonders in many fields, but the basic human problems remain. There is unprecedented literacy, yet this universal education does not seem to have fostered goodness, but only mental restlessness and discontent instead. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technology, but somehow this is not sufficient as we have not yet succeeded in bringing about peace and happiness or in overcoming suffering.   We can only conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our progress and development, and if we do not check it in time there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humanity. I am not at all against science and technology - they have contributed immensely to the overall experience of humankind; to our material comfort and well-being and to our greater understanding of the world we live in. But if we give too much emphasis to science and technology we are in danger of losing touch with those aspects of human knowledge and understanding that aspire towards honesty and altruism.   Science and technology, though capable of creating immeasurable material comfort, cannot replace the age-old spiritual and humanitarian values that have largely shaped world civilization, in all its national forms, as we know it today. No one can deny the unprecedented material benefit of science and technology, but our basic human problems remain; we are still faced with the same, if not more, suffering, fear, and tension. Thus it is only logical to try to strike a balance between material developments on the one hand and the development of spiritual, human values on the other. In order to bring about this great adjustment, we need to revive our humanitarian values.   I am sure that many people share my concern about the present worldwide moral crisis and will join in my appeal to all humanitarians and religious practitioners who also share this concern to help make our societies more compassionate, just, and equitable. I do not speak as a Buddhist or even as a Tibetan. Nor do I speak as an expert on international politics (though I unavoidably comment on these matters). Rather, I speak simply as a human being, as an upholder of the humanitarian values that are the bedrock not only of Mahayana Buddhism but of all the great world religions. From this perspective I share with you my personal outlook - that:

1. Universal humanitarianism is essential to solve global problems; 2. Compassion is the pillar of world peace; 3. All world religions are already for world peace in this way, as are all humanitarians of whatever ideology; 4. Each individual has a universal responsibility to shape institutions to serve human needs.

Solving Human Problems through Transforming Human Attitudes

Of the many problems we face today, some are natural calamities and must be accepted and faced with equanimity. Others, however, are of our own making, created by misunderstanding, and can be corrected. One such type arises from the conflict of ideologies, political or religious, when people fight each other for petty ends, losing sight of the basic humanity that binds us all together as a single human family. We must remember that the different religions, ideologies, and political systems of the world are meant for human beings to achieve happiness. We must not lose sight of this fundamental goal and at no time should we place means above ends; the supremacy of humanity over matter and ideology must always be maintained.   By far the greatest single danger facing humankind - in fact, all living beings on our planet - is the threat of nuclear destruction. I need not elaborate on this danger, but I would like to appeal to all the leaders of the nuclear powers who literally hold the future of the world in their hands, to the scientists and technicians who continue to create these awesome weapons of destruction, and to all the people at large who are in a position to influence their leaders: I appeal to them to exercise their sanity and begin to work at dismantling and destroying all nuclear weapons. We know that in the event of a nuclear war there will be no victors because there will be no survivors! Is it not frightening just to contemplate such inhuman and heartless destruction? And, is it not logical that we should remove the cause for our own destruction when we know the cause and have both the time and the means to do so? Often we cannot overcome our problems because we either do not know the cause or, if we understand it, do not have the means to remove it. This is not the case with the nuclear threat.   Whether they belong to more evolved species like humans or to simpler ones such as animals, all beings primarily seek peace, comfort, and security. Life is as dear to the mute animal as it is to any human being; even the simplest insect strives for protection from dangers that threaten its life. Just as each one of us wants to live and does not wish to die, so it is with all other creatures in the universe, though their power to effect this is a different matter.   Broadly speaking there are two types of happiness and suffering, mental and physical, and of the two, I believe that mental suffering and happiness are the more acute. Hence, I stress the training of the mind to endure suffering and attain a more lasting state of happiness. However, I also have a more general and concrete idea of happiness: a combination of inner peace, economic development, and, above all, world peace. To achieve such goals I feel it is necessary to develop a sense of universal responsibility, a deep concern for all irrespective of creed, colour, sex, or nationality.   The premise behind this idea of universal responsibility is the simple fact that, in general terms, all others' desires are the same as mine. Every being wants happiness and does not want suffering. If we, as intelligent human beings, do not accept this fact, there will be more and more suffering on this planet. If we adopt a self-centred approach to life and constantly try to use others for our own self-interest, we may gain temporary benefits, but in the long run we will not succeed in achieving even personal happiness, and world peace will be completely out of the question.   In their quest for happiness, humans have used different methods, which all too often have been cruel and repellent. Behaving in ways utterly unbecoming to their status as humans, they inflict suffering upon fellow humans and other living beings for their own selfish gains. In the end, such shortsighted actions bring suffering to oneself as well as to others. To be born a human being is a rare event in itself, and it is wise to use this opportunity as effectively and skillfully as possible. We must have the proper perspective that of the universal life process, so that the happiness or glory of one person or group is not sought at the expense of others.   All this calls for a new approach to global problems. The world is becoming smaller and smaller - and more and more interdependent - as a result of rapid technological advances and international trade as well as increasing trans-national relations. We now depend very much on each other. In ancient times problems were mostly family-size, and they were naturally tackled at the family level, but the situation has changed. Today we are so interdependent, so closely interconnected with each other, that without a sense of universal responsibility, a feeling of universal brotherhood and sisterhood, and an understanding and belief that we really are part of one big human family, we cannot hope to overcome the dangers to our very existence - let alone bring about peace and happiness.   One nation's problems can no longer be satisfactorily solved by itself alone; too much depends on the interest, attitude, and cooperation of other nations. A universal humanitarian approach to world problems seems the only sound basis for world peace. What does this mean? We begin from the recognition mentioned previously that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only one's own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others also when pursuing our own happiness. This will lead to what I call 'wise self-interest', which hopefully will transform itself into 'compromised self-interest', or better still, 'mutual interest'.   Although the increasing interdependence among nations might be expected to generate more sympathetic cooperation, it is difficult to achieve a spirit of genuine cooperation as long as people remain indifferent to the feelings and happiness of others. When people are motivated mostly by greed and jealousy, it is not possible for them to live in harmony. A spiritual approach may not solve all the political problems that have been caused by the existing self-centered approach, but in the long run it will overcome the very basis of the problems that we face today.   On the other hand, if humankind continues to approach its problems considering only temporary expediency, future generations will have to face tremendous difficulties. The global population is increasing, and our resources are being rapidly depleted. Look at the trees, for example. No one knows exactly what adverse effects massive deforestation will have on the climate, the soil, and global ecology as a whole. We are facing problems because people are concentrating only on their short-term, selfish interests, not thinking of the entire human family. They are not thinking of the earth and the long-term effects on universal life as a whole. If we of the present generation do not think about these now, future generations may not be able to cope with them.

Compassion as the Pillar of World Peace

According to Buddhist psychology, most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities. The pursuit of the objects of our desire and attachment involves the use of aggression and competitiveness as supposedly efficacious instruments. These mental processes easily translate into actions, breeding belligerence as an obvious effect. Such processes have been going on in the human mind since time immemorial, but their execution has become more effective under modern conditions. What can we do to control and regulate these 'poisons' - delusion, greed, and aggression? For it is these poisons that are behind almost every trouble in the world.   As one brought up in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, I feel that love and compassion are the moral fabric of world peace. Let me first define what I mean by compassion. When you have pity or compassion for a very poor person, you are showing sympathy because he or she is poor; your compassion is based on altruistic considerations. On the other hand, love towards your wife, your husband, your children, or a close friend is usually based on attachment. When your attachment changes, your kindness also changes; it may disappear. This is not true love. Real love is not based on attachment, but on altruism. In this case your compassion will remain as a humane response to suffering as long as beings continue to suffer.   This type of compassion is what we must strive to cultivate in ourselves, and we must develop it from a limited amount to the limitless. Undiscriminating, spontaneous, and unlimited compassion for all sentient beings is obviously not the usual love that one has for friends or family, which is alloyed with ignorance, desire, and attachment. The kind of love we should advocate is this wider love that you can have even for someone who has done harm to you: your enemy.   The rationale for compassion is that every one of us wants to avoid suffering and gain happiness. This, in turn, is based on the valid feeling of '1', which determines the universal desire for happiness. Indeed, all beings are born with similar desires and should have an equal right to fulfill them. If I compare myself with others, who are countless, I feel that others are more important because I am just one person whereas others are many. Further, the Tibetan Buddhist tradition teaches us to view all sentient beings as our dear mothers and to show our gratitude by loving them all. For, according to Buddhist theory, we are born and reborn countless numbers of times, and it is conceivable that each being has been our parent at one time or another. In this way all beings in the universe share a family relationship.   Whether one believes in religion or not, there is no one who does not appreciate love and compassion. Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents; later in life, when facing the sufferings of disease and old age, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. If at the beginning and end of our lives we depend upon others' kindness, why then in the middle should we not act kindly towards others? The development of a kind heart (a feeling of closeness for all human beings) does not involve the religiosity we normally associate with conventional religious practice. It is not only for people who believe in religion, but is for everyone regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. It is for anyone who considers himself or herself, above all, a member of the human family and who sees things from this larger and longer perspective. This is a powerful feeling that we should develop and apply; instead, we often neglect it, particularly in our prime years when we experience a false sense of security.   When we take into account a longer perspective, the fact that all wish to gain happiness and avoid suffering, and keep in mind our relative unimportance in relation to countless others, we can conclude that it is worthwhile to share our possessions with others. When you train in this sort of outlook, a true sense of compassion - a true sense of love and respect for others - becomes possible. Individual happiness ceases to be a conscious self-seeking effort; it becomes an automatic and far superior by-product of the whole process of loving and serving others.   Another result of spiritual development, most useful in day-to-day life, is that it gives a calmness and presence of mind. Our lives are in constant flux, bringing many difficulties. When faced with a calm and clear mind, problems can be successfully resolved. When, instead, we lose control over our minds through hatred, selfishness, jealousy, and anger, we lose our sense of judgement. Our minds are blinded and at those wild moments anything can happen, including war. Thus, the practice of compassion and wisdom is useful to all, especially to those responsible for running national affairs, in whose hands lie the power and opportunity to create the structure of world peace.

World Religions for World Peace

The principles discussed so far are in accordance with the ethical teachings of all world religions. I maintain that every major religion of the world - Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism - has similar ideals of love, the same goal of benefiting humanity through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making their followers into better human beings. All religions teach moral precepts for perfecting the functions of mind, body, and speech. All teach us not to lie or steal or take others' lives, and so on. The common goal of all moral precepts laid down by the great teachers of humanity is unselfishness. The great teachers wanted to lead their followers away from the paths of negative deeds caused by ignorance and to introduce them to paths of goodness.   All religions agree upon the necessity to control the undisciplined mind that harbours selfishness and other roots of trouble, and each teaches a path leading to a spiritual state that is peaceful, disciplined, ethical, and wise. It is in this sense that I believe all religions have essentially the same message. Differences of dogma may be ascribed to differences of time and circumstance as well as cultural influences; indeed, there is no end to scholastic argument when we consider the purely metaphysical side of religion. However, it is much more beneficial to try to implement in daily life the shared precepts for goodness taught by all religions rather than to argue about minor differences in approach.   There are many different religions to bring comfort and happiness to humanity in much the same way as there are particular treatments for different diseases. For, all religions endeavour in their own way to help living beings avoid misery and gain happiness. And, although we can find causes for preferring certain interpretations of religious truths, there is much greater cause for unity, stemming from the human heart. Each religion works in its own way to lessen human suffering and contribute to world civilization. Conversion is not the point. For instance, I do not think of converting others to Buddhism or merely furthering the Buddhist cause. Rather, I try to think of how I as a Buddhist humanitarian can contribute to human happiness.   While pointing out the fundamental similarities between world religions, I do not advocate one particular religion at the expense of all others, nor do I seek a new 'world religion'. All the different religions of the world are needed to enrich human experience and world civilization. Our human minds, being of different calibre and disposition, need different approaches to peace and happiness. It is just like food. Certain people find Christianity more appealing, others prefer Buddhism because there is no creator in it and everything depends upon your own actions. We can make similar arguments for other religions as well. Thus, the point is clear: humanity needs all the world's religions to suit the ways of life, diverse spiritual needs, and inherited national traditions of individual human beings.   It is from this perspective that I welcome efforts being made in various parts of the world for better understanding among religions. The need for this is particularly urgent now. If all religions make the betterment of humanity their main concern, then they can easily work together in harmony for world peace. Interfaith understanding will bring about the unity necessary for all religions to work together. However, although this is indeed an important step, we must remember that there are no quick or easy solutions. We cannot hide the doctrinal differences that exist among various faiths, nor can we hope to replace the existing religions by a new universal belief. Each religion has its own distinctive contributions to make, and each in its own way is suitable to a particular group of people as they understand life. The world needs them all.   There are two primary tasks facing religious practitioners who are concerned with world peace. First, we must promote better interfaith understanding so as to create a workable degree of unity among all religions. This may be achieved in part by respecting each other's beliefs and by emphasizing our common concern for human well-being. Second, we must bring about a viable consensus on basic spiritual values that touch every human heart and enhance general human happiness. This means we must emphasize the common denominator of all world religions - humanitarian ideals. These two steps will enable us to act both individually and together to create the necessary spiritual conditions for world peace.   We practitioners of different faiths can work together for world peace when we view different religions as essentially instruments to develop a good heart - love and respect for others, a true sense of community. The most important thing is to look at the purpose of religion and not at the details of theology or metaphysics, which can lead to mere intellectualism. I believe that all the major religions of the world can contribute to world peace and work together for the benefit of humanity if we put aside subtle metaphysical differences, which are really the internal business of each religion.   Despite the progressive secularization brought about by worldwide modernization and despite systematic attempts in some parts of the world to destroy spiritual values, the vast majority of humanity continues to believe in one religion or another. The undying faith in religion, evident even under irreligious political systems, clearly demonstrates the potency of religion as such. This spiritual energy and power can be purposefully used to bring about the spiritual conditions necessary for world peace. Religious leaders and humanitarians all over the world have a special role to play in this respect.   Whether we will be able to achieve world peace or not, we have no choice but to work towards that goal. If our minds are dominated by anger, we will lose the best part of human intelligence - wisdom, the ability to decide between right and wrong. Anger is one of the most serious problems facing the world today.

Individual Power to Shape Institutions

Anger plays no small role in current conflicts such as those in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the North-South problem, and so forth. These conflicts arise from a failure to understand one another's humanness. The answer is not the development and use of greater military force, nor an arms race. Nor is it purely political or purely technological. Basically it is spiritual, in the sense that what is required is a sensitive understanding of our common human situation. Hatred and fighting cannot bring happiness to anyone, even to the winners of battles. Violence always produces misery and thus is essentially counter-productive. It is, therefore, time for world leaders to learn to transcend the differences of race, culture, and ideology and to regard one another through eyes that see the common human situation. To do so would benefit individuals, communities, nations, and the world at large.   The greater part of present world tension seems to stem from the 'Eastern bloc' versus 'Western bloc' conflict that has been going on since World War II. These two blocs tend to describe and view each other in a totally unfavourable light. This continuing, unreasonable struggle is due to a lack of mutual affection and respect for each other as fellow human beings. Those of the Eastern bloc should reduce their hatred towards the Western bloc because the Western bloc is also made up of human beings - men, women, and children. Similarly those of the Western bloc should reduce their hatred towards the Eastern bloc because the Eastern bloc is also human beings. In such a reduction of mutual hatred, the leaders of both blocs have a powerful role to play. But first and foremost, leaders must realize their own and others' humanness. Without this basic realization, very little effective reduction of organized hatred can be achieved.   If, for example, the leader of the United States of America and the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics suddenly met each other in the middle of a desolate island, I am sure they would respond to each other spontaneously as fellow human beings. But a wall of mutual suspicion and misunderstanding separates them the moment they are identified as the 'President of the USA' and the 'Secretary-General of the USSR'). More human contact in the form of informal extended meetings, without any agenda, would improve their mutual understanding; they would learn to relate to each other as human beings and could then try to tackle international problems based on this understanding. No two parties, especially those with a history of antagonism, can negotiate fruitfully in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and hatred.   I suggest that world leaders meet about once a year in a beautiful place without any business, just to get to know each other as human beings. Then, later, they could meet to discuss mutual and global problems. I am sure many others share my wish that world leaders meet at the conference table in such an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding of each other's humanness.   To improve person-to-person contact in the world at large, I would like to see greater encouragement of international tourism. Also, mass media, particularly in democratic societies, can make a considerable contribution to world peace by giving greater coverage to human interest items that reflect the ultimate oneness of humanity. With the rise of a few big powers in the international arena, the humanitarian role of international organizations is being bypassed and neglected. I hope that this will be corrected and that all international organizations, especially the United Nations, will be more active and effective in ensuring maximum benefit to humanity and promoting international understanding. It will indeed be tragic if the few powerful members continue to misuse world bodies like the UN for their one-sided interests. The UN must become the instrument of world peace. This world body must be respected by all, for the UN is the only source of hope for small oppressed nations and hence for the planet as a whole.   As all nations are economically dependent upon one another more than ever before, human understanding must go beyond national boundaries and embrace the international community at large. Indeed, unless we can create an atmosphere of genuine cooperation, gained not by threatened or actual use of force but by heartfelt understanding, world problems will only increase. If people in poorer countries are denied the happiness they desire and deserve, they will naturally be dissatisfied and pose problems for the rich. If unwanted social, political, and cultural forms continue to be imposed upon unwilling people, the attainment of world peace is doubtful. However, if we satisfy people at a heart-to-heart level, peace will surely come.   Within each nation, the individual ought to be given the right to happiness, and among nations, there must be equal concern for the welfare of even the smallest nations. I am not suggesting that one system is better than another and all should adopt it. On the contrary, a variety of political systems and ideologies is desirable and accords with the variety of dispositions within the human community. This variety enhances the ceaseless human quest for happiness. Thus each community should be free to evolve its own political and socio-economic system, based on the principle of self-determination.   The achievement of justice, harmony, and peace depends on many factors. We should think about them in terms of human benefit in the long run rather than the short term. I realize the enormity of the task before us, but I see no other alternative than the one I am proposing - which is based on our common humanity. Nations have no choice but to be concerned about the welfare of others, not so much because of their belief in humanity, but because it is in the mutual and long-term interest of all concerned. An appreciation of this new reality is indicated by the emergence of regional or continental economic organizations such as the European Economic Community, the Association of South East Asian Nations, and so forth. I hope more such trans-national organizations will be formed, particularly in regions where economic development and regional stability seem in short supply.   Under present conditions, there is definitely a growing need for human understanding and a sense of universal responsibility. In order to achieve such ideas, we must generate a good and kind heart, for without this, we can achieve neither universal happiness nor lasting world peace. We cannot create peace on paper. While advocating universal responsibility and universal brotherhood and sisterhood, the facts are that humanity is organized in separate entities in the form of national societies. Thus, in a realistic sense, I feel it is these societies that must act as the building-blocks for world peace. Attempts have been made in the past to create societies more just and equal. Institutions have been established with noble charters to combat anti-social forces. Unfortunately, such ideas have been cheated by selfishness. More than ever before, we witness today how ethics and noble principles are obscured by the shadow of self-interest, particularly in the political sphere. There is a school of thought that warns us to refrain from politics altogether, as politics has become synonymous with amorality. Politics devoid of ethics does not further human welfare, and life without morality reduces humans to the level of beasts. However, politics is not axiomatically 'dirty'. Rather, the instruments of our political culture have distorted the high ideals and noble concepts meant to further human welfare. Naturally, spiritual people express their concern about religious leaders 'messing' with politics, since they fear the contamination of religion by dirty politics.   I question the popular assumption that religion and ethics have no place in politics and that religious persons should seclude themselves as hermits. Such a view of religion is too one-sided; it lacks a proper perspective on the individual's relation to society and the role of religion in our lives. Ethics is as crucial to a politician as it is to a religious practitioner. Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.   Such human qualities as morality, compassion, decency, wisdom, and so forth have been the foundations of all civilizations. These qualities must be cultivated and sustained through systematic moral education in a conducive social environment so that a more humane world may emerge. The qualities required to create such a world must be inculcated right from the beginning, from childhood. We cannot wait for the next generation to make this change; the present generation must attempt a renewal of basic human values. If there is any hope, it is in the future generations, but not unless we institute major change on a worldwide scale in our present educational system. We need a revolution in our commitment to and practice of universal humanitarian values.   It is not enough to make noisy calls to halt moral degeneration; we must do something about it. Since present-day governments do not shoulder such 'religious' responsibilities, humanitarian and religious leaders must strengthen the existing civic, social, cultural, educational, and religious organizations to revive human and spiritual values. Where necessary, we must create new organizations to achieve these goals. Only in so doing can we hope to create a more stable basis for world peace.   Living in society, we should share the sufferings of our fellow citizens and practise compassion and tolerance not only towards our loved ones but also towards our enemies. This is the test of our moral strength. We must set an example by our own practice, for we cannot hope to convince others of the value of religion by mere words. We must live up to the same high standards of integrity and sacrifice that we ask of others. The ultimate purpose of all religions is to serve and benefit humanity. This is why it is so important that religion always be used to effect the happiness and peace of all beings and not merely to convert others.   Still, in religion there are no national boundaries. A religion can and should be used by any people or person who finds it beneficial. What is important for each seeker is to choose a religion that is most suitable to himself or herself. But, the embracing of a particular religion does not mean the rejection of another religion or one's own community. In fact, it is important that those who embrace a religion should not cut themselves off from their own society; they should continue to live within their own community and in harmony with its members. By escaping from your own community, you cannot benefit others, whereas benefiting others is actually the basic aim of religion.   In this regard there are two things important to keep in mind: self-examination and self-correction. We should constantly check our attitude toward others, examining ourselves carefully, and we should correct ourselves immediately when we find we are in the wrong.   Finally, a few words about material progress. I have heard a great deal of complaint against material progress from Westerners, and yet, paradoxically, it has been the very pride of the Western world. I see nothing wrong with material progress per se, provided people are always given precedence. It is my firm belief that in order to solve human problems in all their dimensions, we must combine and harmonize economic development with spiritual growth.   However, we must know its limitations. Although materialistic knowledge in the form of science and technology has contributed enormously to human welfare, it is not capable of creating lasting happiness. In America, for example, where technological development is perhaps more advanced than in any other country, there is still a great deal of mental suffering. This is because materialistic knowledge can only provide a type of happiness that is dependent upon physical conditions. It cannot provide happiness that springs from inner development independent of external factors.   For renewal of human values and attainment of lasting happiness, we need to look to the common humanitarian heritage of all nations the world over. May this essay serve as an urgent reminder lest we forget the human values that unite us all as a single family on this planet.   I have written the above lines To tell my constant feeling. Whenever I meet even a 'foreigner', I have always the same feeling: 'I am meeting another member of the human family., This attitude has deepened My affection and respect for all beings. May this natural wish be My small contribution to world peace. I pray for a more friendly, More caring, and more understanding Human family on this planet. To all who dislike suffering, Who cherish lasting happiness - This is my heartfelt appeal.

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How can Peace be Achieved Essay

Social conflicts generally arise when people pursue their self-interests with less regard to other people’s interests or values. As a result, one party perceives the goals or actions of the other as incompatible with its own leading to a conflict. Although conflict may affect relations between the parties involved, if well understood, it offers an opportunity for ending oppression and promoting better human relations.

In addition, conflict forces people to engage in resolving a common problem. If a conflict is effectively managed, peace is achieved as the concerned parties reconcile their differences and reach a mutual agreement (Giroux, 1993, p.137). In achieving peace, it is important that parties involved in a conflict develop a deeper understanding of their culture and the cultures of the others, which can facilitate dialogue between parties involved in a dispute.

To achieve peace and tranquility in conflict situations, there is nothing better than personal interactions and communication through dialogue. Dialogue is one way of achieving peace and solving interpersonal, national, and international disputes. Additionally, increasing cross-cultural interactions is important in peace-building initiatives as it promotes understanding, which results to peace and prosperity (Giroux, 1993, p.141).

To promote interactions between parties involved in a conflict, dialogue is essential. The major impediment to peace is failure of the conflicting parties to understand and appreciate each other’s perspectives to an issue. To achieve peace, therefore, it is important that the parties involved learn to understand and appreciate one another’s values and interests through dialogue and interactions.

Conflicts primarily arise when various parties pursue self-interests while neglecting the other people’s needs. The pursuit of individual interests creates a social dilemma, which may turn out to be detrimental to all people. However, through and communication, the social dilemmas can be resolved. Dialogue promotes group identity, which consequently promotes concern for collective welfare (Giroux, 1993, p.142).

Conflicts also arise when groups or people compete for scarce resources leading to group identity and polarization. Due to competition, one group perceives the other as the ‘outside group’ and develops negative perceptions towards the ‘outside group’ members. Meanwhile, the in-group members become more cohesive and at the same time proud. Nevertheless, through dialogue, the two groups can reconcile and find a way of resolving their differences.

Perceived injustices can also lead to a conflict especially if one party feels that he/she is unfairly treated. If resources are not distributed equitably, the party that feels exploited can turn aggressive and harass the one perceived to have over benefitted or plan for revenge.

However, through collective dialogue, the group perceived to have over benefitted unfairly can offer an apology or compensation to the other group. This would also prevent future retaliation by the exploited group. Misperceptions of each other’s goals or actions may also cause a situation to degenerate into a conflict.

Misperceptions arise when an individual interprets information or a situation in a biased or self-serving way. As a result, negative stereotypes of the out-group are developed, as each group perceives the other’s goals as incompatible with its own. Dialogue allows the conflicting parties to understand each other’s perspectives in a particular conflict and dispels negative stereotypes and misperceptions.

The strategies that mitigate the causes of conflicts provide effective ways of preventing a situation deteriorating into a conflict. To solve conflicts and attain peace, dialogue is integral to any peace building initiatives. Dialogue encompasses contact or interactions, communication, cooperation, and conciliation, which are the main strategies of achieving peace (Myers, 2010, p.483-501).

By encouraging communication between the conflicting parties, people are able to resolve their interpersonal differences. Communication can occur through bargaining, where the parties seek an agreement by engaging in direct negotiations. Mediation is also another way of achieving peace through communication.

In mediation, a third party, who should be bipartisan, facilitates communication between the two groups and suggests recommendations to both parties (Potegal, 1997, p.309). Communication can also be facilitated through arbitration, where a neutral third party imposes a settlement that each party must adhere.

In a case where communication may not be possible like during tense international relations, conciliation is the most appropriate strategy. Under conciliation, each party is required to reciprocate positive initiatives from the rival party, which helps to reduce retaliation that prevents the conflict from escalating. One effective conciliatory strategy is GRIT (Graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension reduction); the most effective strategy in resolving international conflicts (Myers, 2010, p.503).

Peace can be achieved through cooperation, which is particularly important in reducing hostility between groups. By promoting cooperation in various activities, competition, which is one of the causes of conflicts, is avoided. Contact is another strategy of achieving peace in that, contact through frequent interactions enables both groups to understand each other’s cultures and viewpoints, which in turn promotes dialogue to attain peace.

In order to achieve peace, it requires all the involved parties to engage in a collective effort towards achieving peace. Prior to engaging in conflict resolution, information about the causes of the conflict and the context of the conflict is important. Given that conflicts generally arise due to pursuit of individual interests, dialogue through cooperation, communication, interaction, and conciliation ensures that the diverse interests of each individual are addressed for a common good.

Giroux, H. (1993). Living dangerously: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference. New York: Peter Lang.

Myers, D. G. (2010) Social Psychology (9th Ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Potegal, M. (1997). Appeasement and Reconciliation. Aggressive Behavior, 23, 309-314.

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essay on world peace

Category:  Essays and Paragraphs On November 22, 2018 By Mary

World peace

World peace can be referred to as the state of people from all countries in the world being happy and living harmoniously with each other.

World peace creates one international community that can concentrate on greater issues that are affecting the planet like climate change.

When countries work together, they benefit their citizens since they can freely move from one country to another for employment, education or tourism.

Importance of world peace

• World peace leads to  increased globalization . Globalization is the act where people from different countries are able to interact freely with each other in various aspects.
• World peace also leads to the  promotion of tourism . With peace, people are freer to tour any country of their choice without fear of violence.
• World peace also contributes to  cultural exchanges . People are able to interact freely with each other and they can learn different cultures from other people.
• World peace also contributes to  more   developed economies . This is because people are able to carry out both domestic and foreign investments without fear of the risk of future violence.
• World peace also contributes to the  unification of people to fight unfair vices.  People are able to speak with one voice to get rid of vices like racism, religious discrimination and gender inequality.
• World peace also contributes to the  reduction of wars . Warring countries or internal nation conflicts can be reduced if world peace existed. War is the main cause of human suffering in the world.
• With world peace, you are also assured of  increased freedom of people . People get more freedom whether they are from different religions, race or country. This promotes global cohesion.

How to achieve world peace

• We can achieve world peace through having  international bodies  that will ensure that every nation upholds world peace. Such a body is United Nations and other world organizations that ensure every country has the responsibility of promoting peace.
• We can also achieve world peace through  upholding democracy . The main cause of world violence is dictatorship. When countries have the freedom to vote, they are able to choose the right leaders who are peace friendly.
• World peace is also achieved through  globalization . When globalization is encouraged, countries will uphold peace since they will avoid going into war with countries that have economic ties with them.
• We achieve world peace when there is  equal representation of nations in international bodies.  This will ensure that no nation is oppressed and no nation is left behind. When some nations are not represented, it creates inequality which may stir violence.
• World peace can also be achieved by  raising awareness  of the importance of world peace. Nations can create awareness to their citizens by teaching them on the benefits that they will get when they have peaceful coexistence with other nations.
• World peace can also be achieved by  sharing the country’s wealth equally . This is by giving equal opportunities to all and not overtaxing the poor. This will reduce the cases of rebel movements.

World peace is very important in the growth and prosperity of the entire global community. This is because with world peace, we are able to have more social cohesion and interactions that are beneficial to everyone.

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Question of the Month

How can we achieve world peace, each answer below receives a book. apologies to the entrants not included..

To know how to achieve world peace, we first have to define it. When we talk about peace, we’re envisioning more than just the absence of conflict. It’s about creating an environment where harmony reigns, where needs are met, and suffering is minimized. So world considers the interactions not only among people, but also between humanity and nature; while peace , in this context, entails establishing a situation where resources are fairly distributed among all living beings without harming the environment. As such, world peace is about ensuring that everyone has access to the essentials for a decent quality of life while minimizing suffering and negative environmental impacts.

Is such a state achievable? Can we sustainably feed the world’s population without destructively depleting our natural resources? Should we consider measures like limiting population growth or resource consumption? Moreover, we must grapple with the complexities of human diversity. Does peace look the same for everyone, or are there individual or cultural variations? And do all humans truly desire peace, or do some prefer a system that allows individuals to accumulate more resources than others, leading to conflict?

To address these questions and work towards global harmony, we need a multi-faceted approach that considers politics, education and society. Policies that prioritize environmental conservation, equitable resource distribution, and social justice, can pave the way for a peaceful world. By promoting understanding of environmental sustainability, empathy, and conflict resolution through education, we can cultivate a culture of peace from a young age. Finally, by fostering dialogue, collaboration, and mutual respect among diverse groups we can bridge divides and build solidarity within and between societies. Ultimately, achieving world peace requires a collective effort. It demands a global commitment to values of compassion, justice, and sustainability.

Karin Schann, Madrid

It is tempting to omit the ‘How’, and answer the remaining question: ‘Can we achieve world peace?’ – in which case the answer is: sadly, probably not, at least in the foreseeable future. However, it is a most desirable goal. And let the goal be framed in the broadest meaning of ‘Peace’ – namely that ‘the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and justice shall prevail throughout the world’.

Since the earliest hominids left the trees, there has been chimpanzee-style conflict between groups, over territory, food, sex. That probably motivated our spread out of Africa and eventually throughout the world. Throughout history there have continued to be conflicts over land, resources, religion, ideas. For some three centuries now the driver of human development has been capitalism, and the world has seen great, but very unequal, progress. But capitalism fosters competition, greed, exploitation, injustice – and hence more conflict. With a world population now over eight billion and the limited resources of one small planet, mankind must find ways to live in harmony, with justice for all. It may take an existential threat, like global warning, or another pandemic, or an impending asteroid strike, to galvanise all nations into positive, cooperative action. Response to climate change is the immediate imperative, and must be addressed through fairer sharing of the world’s resources and technological knowledge, and greater justice for all nations. Boosting the authority and financing of the United Nations is a first step, together with strenuous efforts to improve health and education worldwide, and the relieving or even elimination of poverty and food shortages. As John F. Kennedy so presciently said in his inaugural address: “This will not be finished in the first 100 days, or even in the first 1000 days, nor in the life of this administration… But let us begin!” The future of humanity demands that we wake up to our collective failings, and take concerted and continuous action to eliminate them.

David J. Morris, Oxford

It often seems that the history of humanity is one of war and conflict: that it is human nature to war against each other, and so war is unavoidable, and peace impossible. The ancient Chinese philosopher/military theorist Sun Tzu wrote that diplomacy must be favoured over war, but acknowledged that sometimes wars must be fought. Even saints such as Thomas Aquinas have written about when war is justified rather than simply condoning pacificism. Therefore, it might be good look at the reasons for warfare, and asking whether these could, to any degree, be remedied, creating an at least partial world peace.

The greatest causes of warfare are arguably, extreme nationalistic sentiments, causing parties to stake a claim to a specific region over which they desire greater sovereignty or social-political rights. This is the case even when these claims are expressed in other terms (‘a jihad’, or a ‘crusade’, against ‘unbelievers’, or ‘terrorists’, etc). So if we could assuage extreme nationalist sentiments, we may go a long way towards securing world peace.

To achieve this, we might be well-advised to create a greater culture of diplomacy between nations: seeing war as a symptom of failure, and something relied on only as a last resort (if our own nation is invaded or attacked). Even if this is difficult, costly and time-consuming, it must be preferred over war. We may also encourage greater respect for other nations and cultures, by supporting international treaties and legislation defending their rights; and create greater social, political and economic cooperation between nation-states. All this may prevent the growth of animosity between nations. Arguably, the existence of the European Union has averted the European-led warfare that marred the last century, bringing lasting peace to its previously antagonistic member-states. We may even appeal to our common humanity above all cultural and nationalistic concerns: after all, every human alive has a common ancestor, perhaps as little as eighty thousand years ago. Therefore, if we are both more considerate of other peoples’ rights to self-determination, whilst being simultaneously more aware of our common humanity, we should be going in the right direction towards – and, perhaps, eventually achieving – world peace.

Jonathan Tipton, Penwortham, Lancashire

When the UN Charter was adopted in June 1945, following two catastrophic world wars, it set as one of its objectives to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Since then, the United Nations, the world’s foremost institution of global governance, has dedicated billions of dollars towards peacekeeping and peacemaking initiatives. Yet although these interventions have had some positive outcomes, they have fallen short of delivering global peace. Even now the world is experiencing several active wars, in regions such as Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and so on.

The 193 UN Member States are currently engaged in intensive intergovernmental negotiations on the Pact For The Future. One of the key Chapters of these discussions is on The New Agenda for Peace. One of the major stumbling blocks that will inhibit general consensus, will be the narrow national interests of Member States, and geopolitical rivalries amongst the big powers, particularly the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council. The foremost dilemma confronting a global order of the sort envisaged in the founding provisions of the UN Charter has been how to balance the interests of nation-states as nation-states against those of nation-states as members of the ‘international community’. And to truly do justice to the notion of international community, member states need to achieve harmony with each other. For that to happen, member states need to exercise solidarity with each other, rather than being driven by realpolitik of the sort championed by the likes of Henry Kissinger.

Karl Marx made the bold claim that “the philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” Philosophy has an important role to play in the pursuit of global peace, as the world needs re-interpretation. The global peace architecture such as the Security Council still resembles the post World War II order, close to eight decades after the formation of the United Nations.

Masotsha Mnguni, New York

If peace means not only the absence of war, but also harmonious social conditions, the means to achieve and maintain it will be as dynamic as the world’s diverse political, social, and cultural ecologies. Top-down abstract approaches to peace – like those envisioned optimistically in Dante’s On World Government or pessimistically in the fictional totalitarian states of Huxley’s Brave New World or Zamyatin’s We – are not about people. They are about ideas of people. It is not surprising that these abstract theories do not account for the variance of human experience. In treating people as an undifferentiated mass, universal theories of peace fail to recognize humans as individuals, and not just political creatures. Perhaps that is why, against the powerful urges at the transnational level to nullify, or at least ‘bracket’ (to borrow a phrase from Carl Schmitt’s Nomos of the Earth ) conflict, top-down approaches to peace have lacked the widespread success once anticipated.

Real peace, not abstract notions of peace, occurs bottom-up. It appears not as a legal duty but as a societal norm. Peace is not legislated; it is constructed. Universal peaceful traits, such as humility, restraint, and forgiveness, become meaningful only when understood in terms of individual lives. So to effect change, peaceful values must be advocated for within a particular context, and account for the sentiments, passions, and experience of individuals.

How best to promote peaceful values, then? Perhaps the best place to begin is through education. As Hannah Arendt said in The Crisis in Education (1958): “Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it”, and how we prepare our children “for the task of renewing a common world.” It seems that if ‘we’ are seeking a common world where we can live harmoniously with each other, the first step is teaching that peace is a virtue that’s honored by our society, and infused in our cultural understandings of what it means to be ‘us’.

Chris Swartz, North Potomac, Maryland

There are many aspects to this question, not least according to whether one is an optimist or a pessimist. It’s well known that people underestimate the duration and cost of a project even when it’s their profession, because people are generally optimists by default. Only pessimists are realistic. I’m in the latter category.

There are a number of factors that mitigate against world peace – the primary one being that humans are inherently tribal and quick to form ingroup-outgroup partitions, as exemplified by politics the world over. In this situation, rational thought and reasoned argument take a back seat to confirmation bias and emotive rhetoric. Add to this dynamic the oft-repeated phenomena that we follow charismatic, cult-propagating leaders, and you have a recipe for destruction on a national scale. This is the biggest obstacle to world peace. These leaders thrive on and cultivate division with a demonisation of the ‘other’. The focus for all of society’s ills becomes an outgroup identified by nationality, race, skin-colour, culture or religion, etc.

Wealth, or the lack of it, is a factor too. Inequality provides a motive and a rationale for conflict. It often goes hand-in-hand with oppression, but even when it doesn’t, the anger and resentment can be politicised by populist leaders whose agenda is more focused on their own sense of deluded historical significance than actually helping the people they supposedly serve. As you have leaders who refuse to compromise, you’ll never find peace. Only moderates on both sides can broker peace.

So, while I’m a pessimist (or realist), I do see a ‘how’. If we only elect leaders who seek and find consensus, and remove leaders who sow division, there is a chance. The best leaders are the ones who bring out the best in others and are not just feeding their own egos. But this is easier said than done, as we are witnessing right now. For as long as we elect leaders who are narcissistic and cultish, we will continue to sow the seeds of destruction.

Paul P. Mealing, Melbourne

World peace could be considered at the global, country or individual level.

Addressing the global level first, countries are often incapable of acting in a responsible global-centric away if left to their own devices. But the United Nations currently has the same degree of utility as a chocolate teapot. Key changes would be to remove powers of veto, enable it to make proper enforceable decisions, and give it the wherewithal to actually enforce those decisions. This requires giving the UN a standing army and the powers to force countries into mediation. There would also need to be some beefing up of the powers of the International Criminal Court which UN members should not be allowed to resign from. Finally, there would need to be proper agreement on things which are not currently ‘owned’, such as the oceans, the Arctic/Antarctic, air space and other planets.

At a national level, much harm has resulted from the election of narcissistic sociopathic megalomaniacs intent only on consolidating their positions. Elections are often a sham. It should be possible to draft robust constitutional guidelines enforceable by the UN which countries would need to adhere to. Also, the effect of religion on the quality of countries’ governance and legislation is highly debateable, and it is likely to be beneficial for religious principles to be made subservient to the laws of the country. Borders create a natural tension with other countries. In the long term it would be beneficial if countries were more of an administrative unit than a fortress. But this would require major policies of wealth and resource redistribution in order to avoid mass immigration from developing countries.

At the individual level, the human race has become the predominant life form because of our capacity for learning, planning, and developing. Unfortunately, with this has come acquisitiveness and competition. It seems likely that with the greater influence of technology there will need to be some alterations in the concepts of work, progress, and wealth acquisition. If individuals can focus more on cooperation, personal development and contentment, this is likely to feed into their nation’s foreign policy. Education and encouragement of social-responsibility will also have a part to play.

Julian Stafford, Cambridge

But can we? After WWI, and to a lesser extent WWII, there was the cry of ‘never again’ – but we did it again. Our species carried on doing what it has done since history was recorded, and has continued to find reasons to destroy and to kill.

However, there has been a change. Since the first atomic bombs in the 1940s there has been continuous research and development by very clever people in nuclear weaponry and other weapon systems. We know this not mainly from seeing the results, but by being aware of the expertise, secrecy and funding put into them under the heading of ‘defence’. Our principal defence against using these modern weapons has been our belief that by using them our species would risk extinction. We have proxy wars instead, restricted to old-fashioned ‘conventional’ weapons so the casualties are regarded as acceptable, provided escalation to nuclear weapons is avoided by the sponsoring powers. We hope this will last; that there will be no nuclear exchange and so no extinction. But we are human beings, and given our motivations why would we expect this to continue? There does appear to be an instinct within our species to fight, and it appears to be sufficiently strong under the ‘right’ circumstances to outweigh all other considerations. Our time may be relatively short.

There are alternatives. These would need humanity to reject fighting and change in ways not experienced before. Amongst other things there would need to be changes in people’s attitudes to national leaders, to each other, wherever they live on our planet, and to our own individual sense of worth and worthiness.

It’s difficult to be optimistic.

Steve Hubbard, Beccles, Suffolk

From peace platitudes to the most powerful anti-war advisories and caveats, to the utmost in heart-rending songs, through the TED talks, to the centuries of sermons, poetry and music, to the lengthy and profound peace advocacy in books such as The Iliad and War and Peace to Fromkin’s A Peace To End All Peace , to UN publications warning about the catastrophe of nuclear weapons… None of these philosophical commentaries, songs, poems, histories, or political science investigations have, for the last five thousand years or so, brought us a general and lasting peace. And we are now, incredibly, possibly at the start of another world war.

It’s not that these great and wise counsels aren’t insightful and valid; it is that they’re all preaching a sermon to a species wired to be essentially aggressive and avaricious. It is true that humans can behave in a prosocial (peaceful) manner. But when our frequent violent and gluttonous behaviors emerge, worldwide disasters such as war and greedy exploitation endlessly result.

So, what can save us from our profoundly stupid and socially immature actions? Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized Society (1969) is a brilliant neuroscience study and program by Jose M.R. Delgado and his Yale colleagues that advocates for, and demonstrates, the use of Deep Brain Stimulation (brain manipulation) for human prosocial (peaceful) behavior.

“Frankenstein!” you say. Yet brain interventions are currently effectively being used therapeutically in brain and mind disorders from epilepsy to Parkinson’s to depression. But what’s this got to do with our general ‘healthy’ human behavior?

Effective prosocial scientific correction may be still some years away. But a prosocial, psychocivilized, society is a realistic hope! The most urgent scientific challenge is understanding human behavior. End the futile preaching. Support a true cure – a scientific correction for our heretofore terrible human nature.

Tom Baranski, Somerset, New Jersey

In early Greek thought, peace, a state of affairs caused by what Martha Nussbaum calls ‘fostering natural and social circumstances’, was considered a prerequisite for a flourishing life.To truly live well required favourable circumstances such as prosperity and good fortune, as well as a prevailing peace that ensured safe sanctuary and fertile ground for the provision of our needs.

What then is ‘peace’? A helpful starting point might be with the Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, who argued that peace is a set of social arrangements where violence is absent. In his essay Violence, Peace and Peace Research (1969), Galtung further argues that peace is not simply the absence of overt physical aggression but also requires the removal of deeper structural violence that pervades institutions and wider society. This broader definition of peace sees peace-building as the creation of institutions and structures that sustain peaceful societies.

The pursuit of any utopia or positive goal-oriented endeavour, however, always runs the risk of perpetuating the very violence it purports to reject, since such projects contain assumptions which have the potential to generate forms of oppression. In Beyond Peace Education: Toward Co-Poiesis and Enduring Improvisation (2010), Ilan Gur-Ze’ev argues that “‘peace’ in a less than perfect world is a terrible condition” and that there may be circumstances under which it may justly be challenged or even violently resisted. Such views are also echoed by the likes of Herbert Marcuse in One-Dimensional Man (1964), his critique of the neo-capitalist order, with its “comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom.”

So despite its rhetorical appeal, world peace in a less than perfect world is neither attainable nor, arguably, desirable. All utopias are, in essence, manifestations of power where individuals vie for hegemony so as to impose their particular vision of the good. The flourishing life, therefore, is not to be found in any universal ideal, but instead, in what Gur-Ze’ev labels a ‘negative utopia’: a society characterised by a rejection of ultimate ideals, ideologies, and dogma, in favour of a state of ‘eternal diaspora’ and a ‘homelessness’ that rejects an actual ‘promised land’.

Daniel Janke, Bristol

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Is World Peace Possible?

Peace may be closer than we think..

Posted December 24, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

Peace is a timeless and universal vision belonging to all, and it has forever been a multidisciplinary interest. The great ideals and perennial values of the world’s religions serve not only as beacons to better times, when all will live together in harmony and good will, but they are also designed, when put into practice and lived by, to represent a promise of what humanity is capable of, maybe even created for.

The Golden Rule can be seen as a foundation for a principle of justice that, when extended from the individual to the global level, becomes the basis for the fulfillment of the promise of peace on earth.

At the end of the 18th century, philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed in his essay Perpetual Peace a program to be implemented by governments that would abolish standing armies, eliminate interference of one state with another, and prevent national funds from being used to create friction with other nations. These steps and more, including the rights of all people, as citizens of the world, to experience universal hospitality, would be the foundation on which to build a lasting peace. This essay influenced not only European thought and political practice but was also well represented in the formation of the United Nations.

The founder of experimental psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, who also founded folk psychology— what became cultural psychology—wrote in 1912 of how the psychological and cultural development of humanity has evolved through stages toward a consciousness of “mankind as a unity,” when national affiliations give way to world-wide humanistic concerns. This evolutionary stage can now be seen as where we are headed, and as a prerequisite to world peace.

World unity seems to be where the evolutionary flow is heading, favoring cooperation over competition . But is world peace a promise to be fulfilled, or one that will never be kept? Is it possible that world peace is an inevitable outcome of our collective evolution?

As Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith makes clear in his chapter “Is World Peace Possible?” in Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future , “peace isn’t something that only a group of world leaders will achieve, no matter how good their intentions. When peace erupts on Earth, it will come from individuals everywhere who have entered a new state of consciousness.”

He believes peace is inherent in our species, that it is now exerting itself on an increasingly global scale, and that it is the people who know they are facing a daunting task and work at it anyway who are making a significant difference. This is the way it has always been. When faced with a problem that seems intractable, people find a way around it instead of resigning themselves to it. People have always brought about change in this way, whether it was fighting the challenges of seemingly incurable diseases or achieving civil rights. Those who have won against great odds have pioneered paradigm shifts. This is what makes global peace possible.

It helps a great deal to know what peace really means. It’s not just an absence of conflict. Beckwith says, “peace is the dynamic of harmonizing good. It is a quality within us.” This understanding opens up so many options, not only to be a peace-builder, but also to live peace from within in everything one does in life. As an inner quality, peace becomes something others can pick up on, notice on an energy level, and emulate in their own actions. This way, peace becomes contagious.

As Beckwith puts it, being able to really see “something from another’s point of view leads to the birth of compassion. With compassion, there is understanding; from understanding comes dialogue. When dialogue emerges, then a way out of no way emerges. With empathy, compassion, understanding, and dialogue, people can see a solution that wasn’t there before; a shift in consciousness happens to enable a new insight.”

War is part of our dysfunction; it’s not a reflection of who we are in our highest form. There are many encouraging signs of a new paradigm emerging, of green markets, solar markets, holistic medicine markets, and more, leading a transformation toward a peaceful world.

As Beckwith reminds us, “peace is in the journey, with every step we take. We carry it with us, and its impact is felt on a much wider scale. We all have to find our own neighborhood, in our own community, where we’re willing to share our gift. Many people don’t realize that small groups of people around the world doing things with compassion have an impact on the mental and emotional atmosphere of the entire world. By having peace within, we build peace all around us.”

The promise of world peace has been there for millennia; it is up to us—now—to bring it into reality.

Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith, "Is World Peace Possible?" in Atkinson, R., Johnson, K., and Moldow, D. (eds.) (2020). Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future. New York: Atria Books. 33-38.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Maine and Nautilus Book Award-winning author of The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness.

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World peace is not only possible but inevitable

September 20, 2020.

Nika Saeedi

Team Leader, Prevention of Violent Extremism, UNDP's Global Focal Point on MHPSS; Religion; and Hate Speech

COVID-19 has shifted our world. Over the last six months, no matter where we live, our lives, assumptions, and relationships have changed. Now, more than ever, we have witnessed people from all backgrounds and all ages rise to assist each other

While communities have formed networks of mutual support, many of the institutions mandated to support them have failed to fully harness and amplify the wealth of capacities and support structures that already exist. In international development in particular, a key blind spot that limits the effectiveness of our work exists in the rhetoric we use to understand the communities we work with.

UNDP, along with many other partners, continues to advance new approaches to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, but our continued use of terminology that fails to fully embrace the power of people impedes the transformative potential of our work. This can also lead to inadequate policy and programming, or to insufficient – or inappropriate – action. One of the most prominent examples of this is our tendency to target support to individuals and communities facing poverty, conflict, or other sources of instability by identifying them as ‘vulnerable’ people.

For example, the problem with categorizing  women as vulnerable group project women’s passivity and helplessness, denying them agency and power in the processes of change. A radical reaction to portraying women as vulnerable in recent years has been an over glorification of women’s role as fighters in support of violent extremist groups, hindering their capacity and role as peacebuilders.

Words matter. They shape mindsets, and mindsets shapes approaches and outcomes. There is an important distinction between a vulnerable person and a person living in a vulnerable circumstance. When we define people by their circumstances, we fail to engage with them as multidimensional beings. It’s time for UNDP to move from using ‘vulnerability’ as a means of defining the people it supports, to considering all people as protagonists for change.

This might allow us  to meet people’s aspirations  and assist us in assessment and conceptualization of where inequality stems from and who has a role in combating it. By moving away from a deprivation perspective, which leads to divisive mentalities about the capacity of particular groups of people, we are better positioned to recognize the reality of humanity’s common journey in building a peaceful world, and the role of each individual as a protagonist in it. We can start this journey by changing the words we use and therefore the whole narrative from vulnerability to empowerment and constructive resilience.

Whether this reconceptualization of what unites us to be reached only after a global crisis such as this pandemic has revealed the cost of humanity’s stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, or is to be reached through consultation and dialogue, is the choice before all.

We can choose to graduate from the idea of labeling women, youth, racial, religious and ethnic minorities as ‘vulnerable groups in the discussions that guide our decision-making. We can embark on a journey with greater clarity of vision and determination to question and reflect on how our policy and programming promote the nobility of them and draw on their experience.

To accept that the individual, the community, and the institutions of society are the protagonists of civilization building, and to act accordingly, opens up great possibilities for human happiness and allows for the creation of environments in which the true powers of the human spirit can be released.

Several opportunities to enhance our work with peacebuilders, activists, and other populations in bringing about sustainable change and to ensure we recognize and articulate with greater clarity their latent capacity may include the following:

• To  stand with women peacebuilders to ensure they are recognized for their work and courage, have full inclusion and representation in local and global peace and recovery processes and are protected against threats and are receiving the resources  to carry out their work. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of WPS, and UNDP is proud to join the International Civil Society Action Network(ICAN) and the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) as they launch the global #shebuildspeace call to action and campaign building on our partnership on Invisible Women .  
• To recognize the powers endowed in people of faith, especially women of faith, at all levels. Women of faith are actively engaging in the local peace process and they are advocating against hate speech, initiatives addressing issues connected to the environment, like climate. UNDP and UN Women report on Conflicting Identities: The Nexus between Masculinities, Femininities and Violent Extremism in Asia recommend Programming take a whole-of-family and hole-of-community approach when designing interventions. 
• To recognize the essentiality of community-based peacebuilding as parallel or pre-requisite to high-level negotiations. The effects of COVID-19 proved that local trust, access and resilience is essential part of social cohesion .  
• To include and appreciate young climate change advocates , environmental defenders and environmental journalists who have recognized that creation is an organic whole and they are promoting systems required to respect the earth and to organize and fully utilize its raw materials. Their inclusion in essential in programs that promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies. 
• To acknowledge the role of storytellers who provoke conversations, initiate reflections and ; and work of volunteer online defenders  and work of volunteer online defenders from across the globe combating trolls who spread hate speech.
• To show gratitude to the unique contribution of Indigenous peoples to our planet and our common future. 
• To recognize persons with disabilities as having significant experience and innovative approaches to navigating barriers in their daily lives.
• To learn how people make decisions and act on them, how they think about, influence, and relate to one another, and how they develop beliefs and attitudes. We are working with young people to apply behavioral insights to address violent extremism in countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The innovation and resilience shown by communities amidst the pandemic have underscored the need for more expansive understandings of human relationships, and to place more emphasis on identifying the latent capacities and desires of those we hope to serve. This means believing in people and their desires to be sources of peace and justice. This means opening our eyes to the extent of people’s capacity so that we can see more peacebuilders and changemakers in more places. This means embracing the oneness of humankind and human nobility as a foundation for how we develop our policies and programmes.

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• How To Create A World Peace Essay
• Achieving World Peace with Essay

What to Write in a World Peace Essay

Tips on writing a world peace essay, world peace essay topic ideas, get help with a world peace essay.

It would be great if everyone had a will to write how to achieve world peace essays without any impact from external forces like a school teacher or a college professor. No matter what your motivation was to create such a paper, we're here to help you write it. There are lots of thoughts on this topic, and this text will highlight some of them that look like the most effective ones. Prepare for saving the world! Or do it together with us – just say, " Someone write my essay !"

It may seem weird, but all how to achieve world peace essays are similar regardless of the topic. All needed instructions and arguments for achieving peace already exist, and the world is literally one step behind it. All you need is to use these arguments and instructions to develop your topic efficiently. And here they are:  

Grown-up individuals tend to transfer the responsibility for their lives to parents, family, partners, friends, bosses, governments, extraterrestrial and supernatural powers. In the best case, the other people cannot know how you want to live your life. They make decisions concerning your life from their point of view and often bring you only disappointment. It leads to your anger and frustration, which you translate to other people, which evokes the same feelings in them. And this becomes an avalanche of discontent, hatred, and aggression.

Moreover, sometimes people use your indifference to decision-making to satisfy their goals, which sometimes are evil and even inhumane. And this causes wars. Want to stop it? Begin with yourself: take control of your life and be responsible for your decisions. It is a 100% guarantee of coming closer to world peace.

Actually, people know everything about reaching peace for many years. The problem is that not everyone wants to implement it. The main reason here is the absence of trust between people in general and (mostly!) decision-makers in particular.

We are afraid of being fooled in real-life situations for no logical reason, as this encourages general distrust. We will not stop relations with the other people but are suspicious towards them at first sight. It also leads to this avalanche effect.

Maintaining this status quo doesn't create a positive atmosphere. Though it is hard and takes much time, we need to trust as many other people as possible to make faith a new institution. Then politicians would hesitate to begin war operations way more.

Escape from hurry and fuss with any possibility to open the world in its beauty. Share these emotions with folks, random people in coffee shops, colleagues at work, and so on. Make other people think that enjoying life is not a household appliances brand's motto but a regular and preferable person's choice.

It could reduce the level of negative emotions that often convert to violence and aggression. Violence at houses and on the streets contributes to the legitimation of wars as the society tolerates these methods.

Accept human beings the way they are because differences make us fight each other while similarities lead to a peaceful world. You should not discriminate against a human by race, religion, and/or else. Learn to forgive people for breaking the vicious circle of transferring adverse attitudes.

It is critical to respect every living creature. Entire nations can easily find everyday speech with each other with words of respect and love, and you can explain the best terms to do that. It is quite a good idea for how to achieve world peace essay.

To avoid wars globally and in a particular country, it is also essential to battle against and not tolerate the violence; never support politicians & activists that provoke or promote war. Once again: wars destroy our Earth and life on it!

Knowing the major arguments for writing how to achieve world peace essays may not be enough to create an excellent paper. That is why we propose you get an acquaintance with the following advice to make creative essay writing :

• Do the research. You cannot stand for something without knowing arguments for and against it. Dive deep into the background of the topic as the theme is specific. 
• Use essay structure. Stick to the standard introduction-body-conclusion configuration of your text to achieve more readability. Look at a five paragraph essay example  to get a picture of your essay structure.
• Create an outline. It would help in case you're stuck and to be more logical while developing your ideas.
• Avoid cliches . Beginning such a paper with meaningless words like "there are many wars nowadays" is the best way to attract the reader's attention to something more interesting. 
• Have rest. Provide yourself with a rest from your completed writing for at least a few hours, and proofreading and editing will be more efficient. 

Now you need to choose the topic. It should be quite easy as you can rely on your preferences. If encountering difficulties with a choice, look through the list of topics ideas for how to achieve world peace essay below:

• Introducing Free Hugs day.
• Human rights and freedoms.
• People should give peace a chance.
• Various religions and their life values.
• Ways to prevent the first sign of the war.
• Analyzing the article by Mahatma Gandhi .
• The impact of natural resources on the peace.
• Palestine and Israel: is regional peace possible?
• Previous attempts to make everyone leave in peace.
• A new page in the history of building peaceful nations.
• The role of political figures in reaching the world's peace.
• The role of love in achieving global peace and friendly relations.
• Ways to prevent the destruction of one country by other nations.
• Changing the future of the planet with the help of peace movements.
• The role the United Nations plays in peace movements around the globe.

That is everything you need to know about how to write world peace essay. Who knows — your paper may become an excellent start for improvements. You should not be shy when it comes to sharing personal thoughts regarding such an important topic. If you need any help with your writing or wish to order full essays written from scratch, we can do this for you. The order process is easy, so check it out!

Students have a wide range of topics to discuss when writing a social media essay. This article will tell you about this tricky essay type and offer the most valuable topics to consider. Our experts have gathered many exciting and useful tips that will help you craft a killer essay on social media. ...

The task of writing a cultural identity essay may seem quite complicated, but it is full of pleasure for everyone. You don’t need to obtain specific knowledge to create this paper but only to reflect on your experience, feelings, and memories about the culture you feel close with.It can be even not ...

World Peace Essay: Prompts, How-to Guide, & 200+ Topics

Throughout history, people have dreamed of a world without violence, where harmony and justice reign. This dream of world peace has inspired poets, philosophers, and politicians for centuries. But is it possible to achieve peace globally? Writing a world peace essay will help you find the answer to this question and learn more about the topic.

In this article, our custom writing team will discuss how to write an essay on world peace quickly and effectively. To inspire you even more, we have prepared writing prompts and topics that can come in handy.

• ✍️ Writing Guide
• 🦄 Essay Prompts
• ✔️ World Peace Topics
• 🌎 Pacifism Topics
• ✌️ Catchy Essay Titles
• 🕊️ Research Topics on Peace
• 💡 War and Peace Topics
• ☮️ Peace Title Ideas
• 🌐 Peace Language Topics

🔗 References

✍️ how to achieve world peace essay writing guide.

Stuck with your essay about peace? Here is a step-by-step writing guide with many valuable tips to make your paper well-structured and compelling.

1. Research the Topic

The first step in writing your essay on peace is conducting research. You can look for relevant sources in your university library, encyclopedias, dictionaries, book catalogs, periodical databases, and Internet search engines. Besides, you can use your lecture notes and textbooks for additional information.

Among the variety of sources that could be helpful for a world peace essay, we would especially recommend checking the Global Peace Index report . It presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis of current trends in world peace. It’s a credible report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, so you can cite it as a source in your aper.

Here are some other helpful resources where you can find information for your world peace essay:

• United Nations Peacekeeping
• International Peace Institute
• United States Institute of Peace
• European Union Institute for Security Studies
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

2. Create an Outline

Outlining is an essential aspect of the essay writing process. It helps you plan how you will connect all the facts to support your thesis statement.

To write an outline for your essay about peace, follow these steps:

• Determine your topic and develop a thesis statement .
• Choose the main points that will support your thesis and will be covered in your paper.
• Organize your ideas in a logical order.
• Think about transitions between paragraphs.

Here is an outline example for a “How to Achieve World Peace” essay. Check it out to get a better idea of how to structure your paper.

• Definition of world peace.
• The importance of global peace.
• Thesis statement: World peace is attainable through combined efforts on individual, societal, and global levels.
• Practive of non-violent communication.
• Development of healthy relationships.
• Promotion of conflict resolution skills.
• Promotion of democracy and human rights.
• Support of peacebuilding initiatives.
• Protection of cultural diversity.
• Encouragement of arms control and non-proliferation.
• Promotion of international law and treaties.
• Support of intercultural dialogue and understanding.
• Restated thesis.
• Call to action.

You can also use our free essay outline generator to structure your world peace essay.

3. Write Your World Peace Essay

Now, it’s time to use your outline to write an A+ paper. Here’s how to do it:

• Start with the introductory paragraph , which states the topic, presents a thesis, and provides a roadmap for your essay. If you need some assistance with this part, try our free introduction generator .
• Your essay’s main body should contain at least 3 paragraphs. Each of them should provide explanations and evidence to develop your argument.
• Finally, in your conclusion , you need to restate your thesis and summarize the points you’ve covered in the paper. It’s also a good idea to add a closing sentence reflecting on your topic’s significance or encouraging your audience to take action. Feel free to use our essay conclusion generator to develop a strong ending for your paper.

4. Revise and Proofread

Proofreading is a way to ensure your essay has no typos and grammar mistakes. Here are practical tips for revising your work:

• Take some time. Leaving your essay for a day or two before revision will give you a chance to look at it from another angle.
• Read out loud. To catch run-on sentences or unclear ideas in your writing, read it slowly and out loud. You can also use our Read My Essay to Me tool.
• Make a checklist . Create a list for proofreading to ensure you do not miss any important details, including structure, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting.
• Ask someone for feedback. It is always a good idea to ask your professor, classmate, or friend to read your essay and give you constructive criticism on the work.
• Note down the mistakes you usually make. By identifying your weaknesses, you can work on them to become a more confident writer.

🦄 World Peace Essay Writing Prompts

Looking for an interesting idea for your world peace essay? Look no further! Use our writing prompts to get a dose of inspiration.

How to Promote Peace in the Community Essay Prompt

Promoting peace in the world always starts in small communities. If people fight toxic narratives, negative stereotypes, and hate crimes, they will build a strong and united community and set a positive example for others.

In your essay on how to promote peace in the community, you can dwell on the following ideas:

• Explain the importance of accepting different opinions in establishing peace in your area.
• Analyze how fighting extremism in all its forms can unite the community and create a peaceful environment.
• Clarify what peace means in the context of your community and what factors contribute to or hinder it.
• Investigate the role of dialogue in resolving conflicts and building mutual understanding in the community.

How to Promote Peace as a Student Essay Prompt

Students, as an active part of society, can play a crucial role in promoting peace at various levels. From educational entities to worldwide conferences, they have an opportunity to introduce the idea of peace for different groups of people.

Check out the following fresh ideas for your essay on how to promote peace as a student:

• Analyze how information campaigns organized by students can raise awareness of peace-related issues.
• Discuss the impact of education in fostering a culture of peace.
• Explore how students can use social media to advocate for a peaceful world.
• Describe your own experience of taking part in peace-promoting campaigns or programs.

How Can We Maintain Peace in Our Society Essay Prompt

Maintaining peace in society is a difficult but achievable task that requires constant attention and effort from all members of society.

We have prepared ideas that can come in handy when writing an essay about how we can maintain peace in our society:

• Investigate the role of tolerance, understanding of different cultures, and respect for religions in promoting peace in society.
• Analyze the importance of peacekeeping organizations.
• Provide real-life examples of how people promote peace.
• Offer practical suggestions for how individuals and communities can work together to maintain peace.

Youth Creating a Peaceful Future Essay Prompt

Young people are the future of any country, as well as the driving force to create a more peaceful world. Their energy and motivation can aid in finding new methods of coping with global hate and violence.

In your essay, you can use the following ideas to show the role of youth in creating a peaceful world:

• Analyze the key benefits of youth involvement in peacekeeping.
• Explain why young people are leading tomorrow’s change today.
• Identify the main ingredients for building a peaceful generation with the help of young people’s initiatives.
• Investigate how adolescent girls can be significant agents of positive change in their communities.

Is World Peace Possible Essay Prompt

Whether or not the world can be a peaceful place is one of the most controversial topics. While most people who hear the question “Is a world without war possible?” will probably answer “no,” others still believe in the goodness of humanity.

To discuss in your essay if world peace is possible, use the following ideas:

• Explain how trade, communication, and technology can promote cooperation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
• Analyze the role of international organizations like the United Nations and the European Union in maintaining peace in the world.
• Investigate how economic inequality poses a severe threat to peace and safety.
• Dwell on the key individual and national interests that can lead to conflict and competition between countries.

✔️ World Peace Topics for Essays

To help get you started with writing, here’s a list of 200 topics you can use for your future essTo help get you started with writing a world peace essay, we’ve prepared a list of topics you can use:

• Defining peace
• Why peace is better: benefits of living in harmony
• Is world peace attainable? Theory and historical examples
• Sustainable peace: is peace an intermission of war?
• Peaceful coexistence: how a society can do without wars
• Peaceful harmony or war of all against all: what came first?
• The relationship between economic development and peace
• Peace and Human Nature: Can Humans Live without Conflicts ?
• Prerequisites for peace : what nations need to refrain from war?
• Peace as an unnatural phenomenon: why people tend to start a war?
• Peace as a natural phenomenon: why people avoid starting a war?
• Is peace the end of the war or its beginning?
• Hybrid war and hybrid peace
• What constitutes peace in the modern world
• Does two countries’ not attacking each other constitute peace?
• “Cold peace” in the international relations today
• What world religions say about world peace
• Defining peacemaking
• Internationally recognized symbols of peace
• World peace: a dream or a goal?

🌎 Peace Essay Topics on Pacifism

• History of pacifism: how the movement started and developed
• Role of the pacifist movement in the twentieth-century history
• Basic philosophical principles of pacifism
• Pacifism as philosophy and as a movement
• The peace sign: what it means
• How the pacifist movement began: actual causes
• The anti-war movements: what did the activists want?
• The relationship between pacifism and the sexual revolution
• Early pacifism: examples from ancient times
• Is pacifism a religion?
• Should pacifists refrain from any kinds of violence?
• Is the pacifist movement a threat to the national security?
• Can a pacifist work in law enforcement authorities?
• Pacifism and non-violence: comparing and contrasting
• The pacifist perspective on the concept of self-defense
• Pacifism in art: examples of pacifistic works of art
• Should everyone be a pacifist?
• Pacifism and diet: should every pacifist be a vegetarian ?
• How pacifists respond to oppression
• The benefits of an active pacifist movement for a country

✌️ Interesting Essay Titles about Peace

• Can the country that won a war occupy the one that lost?
• The essential peace treaties in history
• Should a country that lost a war pay reparations?
• Peace treaties that caused new, more violent wars
• Can an aggressor country be deprived of the right to have an army after losing a war?
• Non-aggression pacts do not prevent wars
• All the countries should sign non-aggression pacts with one another
• Peace and truces: differences and similarities
• Do countries pursue world peace when signing peace treaties?
• The treaty of Versailles: positive and negative outcomes
• Ceasefires and surrenders: the world peace perspective
• When can a country break a peace treaty?
• Dealing with refugees and prisoners of war under peace treaties
• Who should resolve international conflicts?
• The role of the United Nations in enforcing peace treaties
• Truce envoys’ immunities
• What does a country do after surrendering unconditionally?
• A separate peace: the ethical perspective
• Can a peace treaty be signed in modern-day hybrid wars?
• Conditions that are unacceptable in a peace treaty

🕊️ Research Topics on Peace and Conflict Resolution

• Can people be forced to stop fighting?
• Successful examples of peace restoration through the use of force
• Failed attempts to restore peace with legitimate violence
• Conflict resolution vs conflict transformation
• What powers peacemakers should not have
• Preemptive peacemaking: can violence be used to prevent more abuse?
• The status of peacemakers in the international law
• Peacemaking techniques: Gandhi’s strategies
• How third parties can reconcile belligerents
• The role of the pacifist movement in peacemaking
• The war on wars: appropriate and inappropriate approaches to peacemaking
• Mistakes that peacemakers often stumble upon
• The extent of peacemaking : when the peacemakers’ job is done
• Making peace and sustaining it: how peacemakers prevent future conflicts
• The origins of peacemaking
• What to do if peacemaking does not work
• Staying out: can peacemaking make things worse?
• A personal reflection on the effectiveness of peacemaking
• Prospects of peacemaking
• Personal experience of peacemaking

💡 War and Peace Essay Topics

• Counties should stop producing new types of firearms
• Countries should not stop producing new types of weapons
• Mutual assured destruction as a means of sustaining peace
• The role of nuclear disarmament in world peace
• The nuclear war scenario: what will happen to the world?
• Does military intelligence contribute to sustaining peace?
• Collateral damage: analyzing the term
• Can the defenders of peace take up arms?
• For an armed person, is killing another armed person radically different from killing an unarmed one? Ethical and legal perspectives
• Should a healthy country have a strong army?
• Firearms should be banned
• Every citizen has the right to carry firearms
• The correlation between gun control and violence rates
• The second amendment: modern analysis
• Guns do not kill: people do
• What weapons a civilian should never be able to buy
• Biological and chemical weapons
• Words as a weapon: rhetoric wars
• Can a pacifist ever use a weapon?
• Can dropping weapons stop the war?

☮️ Peace Title Ideas for Essays

• How the nuclear disarmament emblem became the peace sign
• The symbolism of a dove with an olive branch
• Native Americans’ traditions of peace declaration
• The mushroom cloud as a cultural symbol
• What the world peace awareness ribbon should look like
• What I would like to be the international peace sign
• The history of the International Day of Peace
• The peace sign as an accessory
• The most famous peace demonstrations
• Hippies’ contributions to the peace symbolism
• Anti-war and anti-military symbols
• How to express pacifism as a political position
• The rainbow as a symbol of peace
• Can a white flag be considered a symbol of peace?
• Examples of the inappropriate use of the peace sign
• The historical connection between the peace sign and the cannabis leaf sign
• Peace symbols in different cultures
• Gods of war and gods of peace: examples from the ancient mythology
• Peace sign tattoo: pros and cons
• Should the peace sign be placed on a national flag?

🌐 Essay Topics about Peace Language

• The origin and historical context of the word “peace”
• What words foreign languages use to denote “peace”
• What words, if any, should a pacifist avoid?
• The pacifist discourse: key themes
• Disintegration language: “us” vs “them”
• How to combat war propaganda
• Does political correctness promote world peace?
• Can an advocate of peace be harsh in his or her speeches?
• Effective persuasive techniques in peace communications and negotiations
• Analyzing the term “world peace”
• If the word “war” is forbidden, will wars stop?
• Is “peacemaking” a right term?
• Talk to the hand: effective and ineffective interpersonal communication techniques that prevent conflicts
• The many meanings of the word “peace”
• The pacifists’ language: when pacifists swear, yell, or insult
• Stressing similarities instead of differences as a tool of peace language
• The portrayal of pacifists in movies
• The portrayals of pacifists in fiction
• Pacifist lyrics: examples from the s’ music
• Poems that supported peace The power of the written word
• Peaceful coexistence: theory and practice
• Under what conditions can humans coexist peacefully?
• “A man is a wolf to another man”: the modern perspective
• What factors prevent people from committing a crime?
• Right for peace vs need for peace
• Does the toughening of punishment reduce crime?
• The Stanford prison experiment: implications
• Is killing natural?
• The possibility of universal love: does disliking always lead to conflicts?
• Basic income and the dynamics of thefts
• Hobbesian Leviathan as the guarantee of peace
• Is state-concentrated legitimate violence an instrument for reducing violence overall?
• Factors that undermine peaceful coexistence
• Living in peace vs living for peace
• The relationship between otherness and peacefulness
• World peace and human nature: the issue of attainability
• The most successful examples of peaceful coexistence
• Lack of peace as lack of communication
• Point made: counterculture and pacifism
• What Woodstock proved to world peace nonbelievers and opponents?
• Woodstock and peaceful coexistence: challenges and successes
• Peace, economics, and quality of life
• Are counties living in peace wealthier? Statistics and reasons
• Profits of peace and profits of war: comparison of benefits and losses
• Can a war improve the economy? Discussing examples
• What is more important for people: having appropriate living conditions or winning a war?
• How wars can improve national economies: the perspective of aggressors and defenders
• Peace obstructers: examples of interest groups that sustained wars and prevented peace
• Can democracies be at war with one another?
• Does the democratic rule in a country provide it with an advantage at war?
• Why wars destroy economies: examples, discussion, and counterarguments
• How world peace would improve everyone’s quality of life
• Peace and war today
• Are we getting closer to world peace? Violence rates, values change, and historical comparison
• The peaceful tomorrow: how conflicts will be resolved in the future if there are no wars
• Redefining war: what specific characteristics today’s wars have that make them different from previous centuries’ wars
• Why wars start today: comparing and contrasting the reasons for wars in the modern world to historical examples
• Subtle wars: how two countries can be at war with each other without having their armies collide in the battlefield
• Cyber peace: how cyberwars can be stopped
• Information as a weapon: how information today lands harder blows than bombs and missiles
• Information wars: how the abundance of information and public access to it have not, nonetheless, eliminated propaganda
• Peace through defeating: how ISIS is different from other states, and how can its violence be stopped
• Is world peace a popular idea? Do modern people mostly want peace or mainly wish to fight against other people and win?
• Personal contributions to world peace
• What can I do for attaining world peace? Personal reflection
• Respect as a means of attaining peace: why respecting people is essential not only on the level of interpersonal communications but also on the level of social good
• Peacefulness as an attitude: how one’s worldview can prevent conflicts
• Why a person engages in insulting and offending: analysis of psychological causes and a personal perspective
• A smile as an agent of peace: how simple smiling to people around you contributes to peacefulness
• Appreciating otherness: how one can learn to value diversity and avoid xenophobia
• Peace and love: how the two are inherently interconnected in everyone’s life
• A micro-level peacemaker: my experiences of resolving conflicts and bringing peace
• Forgiveness for the sake of peace: does forgiving other people contribute to peaceful coexistence or promote further conflicts?
• Noble lies: is it acceptable for a person to lie to avoid conflicts and preserve peace?
• What should a victim do? Violent and non-violent responses to violence
• Standing up for the weak : is it always right to take the side of the weakest?
• Self-defense, overwhelming emotions, and witnessing horrible violence: could I ever shoot another person?
• Are there “fair” wars, and should every war be opposed?
• Protecting peace: could I take up arms to prevent a devastating war?
• Reporting violence: would I participate in sending a criminal to prison?
• The acceptability of violence against perpetrators: personal opinion
• Nonviolent individual resistance to injustice
• Peace is worth it: why I think wars are never justified
• How I sustain peace in my everyday life

Learn more on this topic:

• If I Could Change the World Essay: Examples and Writing Guide
• Ending the Essay: Conclusions
• Choosing and Narrowing a Topic to Write About
• Introduction to Research
• How the U.S. Can Help Humanity Achieve World Peace
• Ten Steps to World Peace
• How World Peace is Possible
• World Peace Books and Articles
• World Peace and Nonviolence
• The Leader of World Peace Essay
• UNO and World Peace Essay
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• Share to email

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A very, very good paragraph. thanks

Peace and conflict studies actually is good field because is dealing on how to manage the conflict among the two state or country.

Keep it up. Our world earnestly needs peace

A very, very good paragraph.

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" To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war " are among the first very words of the UN Charter (in its Preamble), and those words were the main motivation for creating the United Nations, whose founders had lived through the devastation of two world wars by 1945. Since the UN's creation on 24 October 1945 (the date its Charter came into force), the United Nations has often been called upon to prevent disputes from escalating into war, or to help restore peace following the outbreak of armed conflict, and to promote lasting peace in societies emerging from wars.

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Over the decades, the UN has helped to end numerous conflicts, often through actions of the  Security Council & — the organ with primary responsibility, under the  United Nations Charter,  for the maintenance of international peace and security. When it receives a complaint about a threat to peace, the Council first recommends that the parties seek an agreement by peaceful means. In some cases, the Council itself investigates and mediates. It may appoint special representatives or request the Secretary-General to do so, or to use his good offices. It may set forth principles for a peaceful settlement.

When a dispute leads to fighting, the Council's first concern is to end it as soon as possible. On many occasions, the Council has issued ceasefire directives, which have helped to prevent major hostilities. It also deploys UN peacekeeping operations to reduce tensions in troubled areas, keep opposing forces apart, and create conditions for sustainable peace after settlements have been reached. The Council may decide on  enforcement measures ,  economic sanctions  (such as trade embargoes) or collective military action.

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One of the issues of major concern at the international level is the stalemate in the Council's decision-making. This deadlock, largely due to the veto power of the five permanent members, is not new and has been synonymous with paralysis for the UN on many occasions.

During its sixty-second session, the General Assembly decided to begin informal plenary intergovernmental negotiations. The discussions started in the sixty-third session and were based on proposals made by the Member States. The dialogues focused on the question of equitable representation in the Security Council, an increase in its membership, and other matters related to the Council. The goal is to find a solution that will gain the widest possible political acceptance by Member States.

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According to the Charter, the General Assembly can make recommendations on the general principles of cooperation for maintaining international peace and security, including disarmament, and for the peaceful settlement of any situation that might impair friendly relations among nations. The General Assembly may also discuss any question relating to international peace and security and make recommendations if the Security Council is not currently discussing the issue. 

Pursuant to its  “Uniting for Peace” resolution of November 1950 (resolution 377 (V)), the General Assembly may also take action if the Security Council fails to act, owing to the negative vote of a Permanent Member, in a case where there appears to be a threat to, or breach of peace, or an act of aggression. The Assembly can consider the matter  immediately in order to make recommendations to Members for collective measures to maintain, or restore, international peace and security.

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The Charter empowers the Secretary-General to " bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security ." One of the most vital roles played by the Secretary-General is the use of his " good offices " – steps taken publicly and in private that draw upon his independence, impartiality and integrity to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading.

Conflict Prevention

The main strategies to prevent disputes from escalating into conflict, and to prevent the recurrence of conflict, are preventive diplomacy and preventive disarmament. Preventive diplomacy refers to action taken to prevent disputes from arising or escalating into conflicts, and to limit the spread of conflicts as they arise. It may take the form of mediation, conciliation or negotiation.

Preventive diplomacy

Early warning is an essential component of prevention, and the United Nations carefully monitors developments around the world to detect threats to international peace and security, thereby enabling the Security Council and the Secretary-General to carry out preventive action. Envoys and special representatives of the Secretary-General are engaged in  mediation and preventive diplomacy throughout the world. In some trouble spots, the mere presence of a skilled envoy can prevent the escalation of tension. These envoys often cooperate with regional organizations.

Preventive disarmament

Complementing preventive diplomacy is preventive disarmament , which seeks to reduce the number of small arms in conflict-prone regions. In El Salvador, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and elsewhere, this has entailed demobilizing combat forces, as well as collecting and destroying their weapons as part of an overall peace agreement. Destroying yesterday’s weapons prevents their use in tomorrow’s wars.

Preventing Genocide and Responsibility to Protect

Prevention requires apportioning responsibility and promoting collaboration between the concerned States and the international community. The duty to prevent and halt genocide and mass atrocities lies first and foremost with the State, but the international community has a role that cannot be blocked by the invocation of sovereignty. Sovereignty no longer exclusively protects States from foreign interference; it is a charge of responsibility where States are accountable for the welfare of their people. This principle is enshrined in article 1 of the  Genocide Convention  and embodied in the principle of “sovereignty as responsibility” and in the concept of the Responsibility to Protect.

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide  acts as a catalyst to raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action. The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect leads the conceptual, political, institutional and operational development of the Responsibility to Protect. The efforts of their Office include alerting relevant actors to the risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, enhancing the capacity of the United Nations to prevent these crimes, including their incitement.

Peacekeeping

United Nations peacekeeping operations are a vital instrument employed by the international community to advance peace and security.

The first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948 when the Security Council authorized the deployment of the  United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to the Middle East to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Since then, there have been more than 70 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

Over 72 years, UN peacekeeping has evolved to meet the demands of different conflicts and a changing political landscape. Born at the time when Cold War rivalries frequently paralyzed the Security Council, UN peacekeeping goals were primarily limited to maintaining ceasefires and stabilizing situations on the ground, so that efforts could be made at the political level to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. 

UN peacekeeping expanded in the 1990s, as the end of the Cold War created new opportunities to end civil wars through negotiated peace settlements. Many conflicts ended, either through direct UN mediation, or through the efforts of others acting with UN support. Countries assisted included El Salvador , Guatemala , Namibia , Cambodia , Mozambique , Tajikistan , and  Burundi . In the late nineties, continuing crises led to new operations in the  Democratic Republic of the Congo , the  Central African Republic , Timor Leste , Sierra Leone and Kosovo .

In the new millennium, peacekeepers have been deployed to  Liberia ,  Côte d'Ivoire ,  Sudan ,  South Sudan ,  Haiti , and  Mali .

Today's conflicts are less numerous but deeply rooted. For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, and South Sudan today, are in a second or third wave of conflict. And many are complicated by regional dimensions that are key to their solution. In fact, some two-thirds of peacekeeping personnel today are deployed amid ongoing conflict, where peace agreements are shaky or absent. Conflicts today are also increasingly intensive, involving determined armed groups with access to sophisticated armaments and techniques.

The nature of conflict has also changed over the years. UN peacekeeping, originally developed as a means of resolving inter-State conflict, has been increasingly applied over time to intra-State conflicts and civil wars. Although the military remains the backbone of most peacekeeping operations, today’s peacekeepers perform a variety of complex tasks, from helping to build sustainable institutions of governance, through human rights monitoring and security sector reform, to the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants, and demining.

Peacebuilding

Within the United Nations, peacebuilding refers to efforts to assist countries and regions in their transitions from war to peace and to reduce a country's risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities for conflict management, and laying the foundations for sustainable peace and development.

Building lasting peace in war-torn societies is a daunting challenge for global peace and security. Peacebuilding requires sustained international support for national efforts across the broadest range of activities. For instance, peacebuilders monitor ceasefires, demobilize and reintegrate combatants, assist the return of refugees and displaced persons, help to organize and monitor elections of a new government, support justice and security sector reforms, enhance human rights protections, and foster reconciliation after past atrocities.

Peacebuilding involves action by a wide array of organizations of the UN system, including the World Bank , regional economic commissions, NGOs and local citizens’ groups. Peacebuilding has played a prominent role in  UN operations  in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, Liberia and Mozambique, as well as more recently in Afghanistan, Burundi, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste. An example of inter-state peacebuilding has been the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Recognizing that the UN needs to better anticipate and respond to the challenges of peacebuilding, the  2005 World Summit approved the creation of a new Peacebuilding Commission. In the resolutions establishing the  Peacebuilding Commission , resolution 60/180 and resolution 1645 , the UN General Assembly and the Security Council mandated it to bring together all relevant actors to advise on the proposed integrated strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding and recovery; to marshal resources and help ensure predictable financing for these activities; and to develop best practices in collaboration with political, security, humanitarian and development actors.

The resolutions also identify the need for the Commission to extend the period of international attention on post-conflict countries, and where necessary, highlight any gaps which threaten to undermine peacebuilding.

The General Assembly and Security Council resolutions establishing the Peacebuilding Commission also provided for the establishment of a  Peacebuilding Fund & and a Peacebuilding Support Office .

The Rule of Law

Promoting the  rule of law at the national and international levels is at the heart of the United Nations’ mission. Establishing respect for the rule of law is fundamental to achieving a durable peace in the aftermath of conflict, to the effective protection of human rights, and to sustained economic progress and development. The principle that everyone – from the individual to the State itself – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, is a fundamental concept which drives much of the United Nations work. The main United Nations organs, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, play essential roles in supporting Member States to strengthen the rule of law, as do many United Nations entities.

Responsibility for the overall coordination of rule of law work by the United Nations system rests with the  Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group , chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General and supported by the Rule of Law Unit. Members of the Group are the principals of 20 United Nations entities engaged in supporting Member States to strengthen the rule of law. Providing support from headquarters to rule of law activities at the national level, the Secretary-General designated the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the joint global focal point for the police, justice and corrections areas in the rule of law in post-conflict and other crisis situations. 

Women and Children in Conflict

In contemporary conflicts, up to 90 per cent of casualties are civilians, mostly women and children. Women in war-torn societies can face specific and devastating forms of sexual violence, which are sometimes deployed systematically to achieve military or political objectives. Moreover, women continue to be poorly represented in formal peace processes, although they contribute in many informal ways to conflict resolution.

However, the UN Security Council in its  resolution 1325 on women, peace and security has recognized that including women and gender perspectives in decision-making can strengthen prospects for sustainable peace. The landmark resolution addresses the situation of women in armed conflict and calls for their participation at all levels of decision-making on conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Since the agenda was set with the core principles of resolution 1325, the Security Council has adopted seven supporting resolutions —  1820 ,  1888 , 1889 , 1960 ,  2106 ,  2331  and  2467 -. All the resolutions focus on two key goals: strengthening women’s participation in decision-making and ending sexual violence and impunity.

Since 1999, the systematic engagement of the UN Security Council has firmly placed the situation of children affected by armed conflict as an issue affecting peace and security. The Security Council has created a strong framework and provided the Secretary-General with tools to respond to violations against children.  The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict serves as the leading UN advocate for the protection and well-being of children affected by armed conflict.

Peaceful uses of outer space

The UN works to ensure that outer space is used for peaceful purposes and that the benefits from space activities are shared by all nations. This concern for the peaceful uses of outer space began soon after the launch of Sputnik — the first artificial satellite — by the Soviet Union in 1957 and has kept pace with advances in space technology. The UN has played an important role by developing international space law and by promoting international cooperation in space science and technology.

The Vienna-based  United Nations Office for Outer Space serves as the secretariat for the  Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its subcommittees, and assists developing countries in using space technology for development.

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Making Peace

• Posted December 23, 2015
• By Leah Shafer

As 2015 draws to a close, we hope for a new year where cooperation and empathy supersede violence and suspicion. For our final article this year, Usable Knowledge asks: Can education foster a more peaceful world?

According to Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns , an instructor and doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education , it can. Her research on peace education reveals a complex field that seeks to help schools build communities that foster peacemaking and citizenship — to encourage students to become empathetic, inclusive, critical thinkers who have the skills to live peaceful lives.

The Goals of Peace Education

The goals of peace education vary widely across the world. In developing countries, where there is no specific enemy or conflict but a general lack of human rights, peace education seeks to elucidate sources of inequality to promote a more equitable, stable future. In areas of intractable conflict between specific groups, as in Israel and the Palestinian territories, peace education seeks to promote alternate narratives of the conflict to encourage mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration.

In areas where there is no active conflict or violation of human rights, peace education seeks to promote individual skills that reject the use violence and create stronger communities.

Peace Education in Action

For U.S. educators, a successful peace education program focuses on helping children develop the skills they’ll need to get along with others, solve conflicts in nonviolent ways, contribute positively to their communities, respect intergroup differences, and value diversity. Young children need to learn and practice these skills in relationship to their peers, teachers, and family members, Diazgranados Ferráns says. As they grow older, children need opportunities to practice these skills in the context of their broader community and to reflect on their potential global impact.

Diazgranados Ferráns notes that peace education lessons will only take root if peace education is a schoolwide effort that goes beyond a particular subject, embodied by every adult in the building and demonstrated throughout the school day. She outlines several ways that teachers and school leaders can incorporate peace education into their work, teaching students how to be empathetic, responsible, and active learners and leaders:

Model kindness and empathy Teachers, principals, and staff throughout the building can model how to love and care for others through their interactions among each other and with students. Adults should get to know students individually, appreciating the unique strengths and needs of each student and member of the school community.

Repair, don’t punish When students commit an offense, use models of restorative justice to help them understand the effects of their actions and how they can repair any damage done. Instead of punishing or excluding offenders, facilitate conversations on what would need to happen to restore balance in the community. The end goal is for children to understand the impact of their actions and to learn to take responsibility for them.

Create a democratic space Involve student voices in establishing and revising school and class norms. Create classrooms where children are encouraged to share their ideas. Share power with students and give them the space to question authority. Great injustices, inequalities, and atrocities take place when people either are uncritical of authority or aren’t given the appropriate space and courage to question and resist it, says Diazgranados Ferráns.

Give a voice to the excluded On a micro level, this means encouraging students who are commonly excluded to speak up in class. On a macro level, this means incorporating into lessons the narratives of people who have been historically discriminated against or excluded. Have students think critically about why the knowledge and experiences of some groups of people are privileged over the knowledge and experiences of others.

Encourage collaboration in diverse groups Emphasize collaboration and teamwork and deemphasize competition and self-interests. Structure long-term projects that allow children from different social or ethnic groups to work together toward a common goal. Opportunities in which children get to know one another as individuals, says Diazgranados Ferráns, “may help break prejudices and establish caring relationships among members of different groups.”

Discuss controversial issues Facilitate discussions about divisive civic and ethical issues for children of all ages. These debates teach students not only about viewpoints different from their own, but also that it’s okay to disagree with authority figures and peers as long as it’s done respectfully and in a safe environment.

Integrate service learning With younger students, this can mean identifying and solving problems within their classroom. With older students, it can mean creating service projects that help their school, community, or people across world. “Children need to practice, from very, very early on, how to take action, to solve the problems in their community, to have a positive effect,” says Diazgranados Ferráns. “They don’t need to wait until they grow up to change the world.”

Additional Resources

• Read more about Diazgranados Ferráns’ research .

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Ten practical ways to build peace in your life and in the world around you

(Reposted from: Taylor O’Connor. Medium, March 10, 2020. )

By Taylor O’Connor

“Ask yourself what you can do to make a difference, then take that action, no matter how large or small.” – Graça Machel

There’s a lot of people out there who care deeply about some social issue (or issues), but aren’t sure what they can do to make a difference. For many of us, it is hard to know how we can help. It’s easy to become disillusioned, and perhaps cynical.

The systems and structures that govern the world don’t seem to be working. There is war and poverty. There is discrimination, inequality, and violence. The issues are big. They are complex. It can be overwhelming.

The good news is that everyone can do something to make a difference. Sure, the problems are complex, but to be effective in making change the solutions must be simple. I hope the ideas shared below will inspire you and many others to take some action for peace and justice, no matter how large or how small.

How to build peace in your life and the world around you

Based on my personal experiences collaborating with peacebuilders around the world, here is a list of the ten things you can do to build a more peaceful and just world.

1. Calm your mind

Whether a seasoned advocate for peace or a young person aspiring to make a change, it’s always good to start with yourself. Calming your mind will help you be more patient. It will help you be present for those who need you the most. It will help you engage with challenging people. It will hone your intuition. It will allow you to moderate feelings of anger and other strong emotions when they arise. It will give you more insight to analyze complex issues associated with conflict and inequality. It will help you be more focused and creative in your efforts to build peace.

Here are some things you can do to calm your mind. Learn simple mindfulness practices. Embrace quiet time. Observe your emotions. Spend time in nature. Be mindful of your media consumption. Breathe. Find and use contemplative practices that work for you.

2. Simplify your life

Living a simple life will help clear your mind. You’ll have fewer distractions and be more able to focus on finding ways to address an issue (or issues) you care about. It will help you live your life with intention. And with a minimalist lifestyle you will reduce your carbon footprint. That’s a bonus!

Here are some ideas you can consider. Minimize your possessions. Don’t take on too many work commitments. Let go of social engagements that are not meaningful to you. Enjoy the simple things in life. Detach yourself from the idea that you have to be ‘busy.’ Reduce physical and mental clutter, let the distractions fall away, and focus on what is important to you.

3. Educate yourself (and teach others) about injustice and inequality, and about peace.

Systems that produce injustice and inequality rely on their ability to remain invisible to the general public. Those not directly harmed by injustice and inequality often have a difficult time understanding these things, let alone acknowledge their existence. To truly build a more just and equal society we need to bring these issues to the mainstream.

Educate yourself about the structures that produce injustice and inequality, and their historical legacy. Learn about historic struggles for justice and equality, about social movements, about critical events where progress was made, and of the real heroes that made it happen. Use this knowledge to generate creative and strategic ideas for action. Teach others and inspire change.

4. Orient your professional life towards peace

Are you a teacher? Are you teaching your students to critically analyze war, conflict, and inequality? Are you a healthcare worker? What are you doing to make the healthcare system more just? Are you a police officer? How is your department addressing the harmful effects of common policing practices? Are you an entrepreneur? Are you applying your skills to address a social cause? Are you working in the global aid industry? What are you doing to decolonize aid?

Consider the ways your work contributes to injustice and inequality, or the potential for it to contribute to peace and justice. Clarify what social issues you care about the most. Spend time to reflect and find ways to address these issues in your work and professional life. Seek opportunities to make change, or create new ones. Practical actions will be unique to each profession type.

5. Transform interpersonal conflicts

If you are working to build peace, you must become adept at transforming interpersonal conflicts. On principle, transforming conflict in relationships allows everyone to live happier, more fulfilling (thus peaceful) lives. At the same time, working to make change can be stressful, and you will likely encounter conflict with persons on your team who have different ideas about how to move forward. Also, when rattling the foundations of injustice and inequality, you will certainly come into conflict with persons who benefit from these. You must then be well prepared to engage constructively to transform these relationships, to mitigate opposition to your efforts to build peace.

When you encounter interpersonal conflicts, whether you are directly involved or if you are a third party, take them as an opportunity to develop your capacity to manage conflict. Develop techniques to transform these relationships, to make opponents your allies, and to build strong, cohesive teams working together on issues of shared concern. Develop and practice listening and communication skills. Learn techniques to open constructive dialogue. Mediate a conflict. Find ways to build trust. Search for common ground. Create opportunities for forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation.

6. Transform community spaces; or use them for peace learning and action

Transforming community spaces is a unique, often overlooked way to build peace and justice. We often neglect how community spaces contribute to inequality and promote war culture. How are people divided in your city? Does your city have a history of segregating minority communities? Do some communities have better schools or health facilities? Who has access to parks and natural spaces? In which neighborhoods are the waste facilities, power plants, and factories? Where are the museums and cultural sites? What about public monuments? Do they glorify war ‘heroes’ or do they inspire peace?

Here are some ideas you can use to transform spaces in your community or use them for peace learning and action. Preserve, protect, and promote diverse cultural and historic sites. Make community spaces accessible, inclusive, and family-friendly. Reclaim parks, plazas, and walkways. Create shared spaces. Use community spaces for peace learning. Do a community art project. Remove monuments to war ‘heroes’ and bigots. Build monuments to peace heroes.

7. Transform structures tied to the dynamics of war, violence, injustice, and inequality, or withdraw resources and support for war.

Warfare is not possible without a high degree of organization and immense amounts of resources. If we are to abolish war, the structures and institutions of the State that create war abroad and state violence at home must be transformed. Money and resources that feed war must be removed. Likewise, inequality and injustice are a product of government institutions, public policies, and economic systems. To create a more just and equal society requires substantial structural and policy change that strikes to the core of how our societies operate.

Here are some ideas to transform the structures tied to the dynamics of war, violence, injustice, and inequality. Depending on your position and level of influence, your actions may range from voting, to advocacy, to direct policy/institution reform. Demilitarize defense and policing. Use military and police for peaceful purposes. Mobilize for incisive criminal justice reform. Divert funds for war and allocate them for education, health care, social services, diplomacy, peace, arts, and culture. Create laws that regulate the production and sale of weaponry at the national and international levels. Divest from companies, governments, individuals, and institutions that promote/profit from war. Resist paying taxes for war.

8. Disrupt narratives that justify war and rationalize inequality.

As children, we learn a history littered with stories glorifying war. We learn that violence is justified, even dignified. We are inspired by war heroes we read about in history books. Our religious leaders provide the military with their blessings. Political leaders craft lies that justify war, and media outlets provide an echo chamber. Likewise, these institutions produce countless rationalizations of inequality. Historic injustice and inequality are whitewashed in schools. We create the illusion that people become rich and successful only from their own volition. We obscure the vast inequalities that provide easy pathways to success for some while constructing barriers to advancement for others. Poor people are blamed for their condition.

These narratives must be disrupted. People must be educated about the reality of war and of systems that produce inequality. Here are some ideas for action. Transform the teaching of history in schools. Discredit war propaganda and myths that justify violence. Demystify threats. Promote an understanding that violence is not innate; war not inevitable. Expose motivations and deceptive tactics of corrupt leaders who rationalize violence. Deconstruct nationalist ideologies and the politics of division. Combat hate speech and humanize marginalized groups. Speak out against the misuse of religion for discriminatory purposes, especially within your own faith group.

9. Leverage the power of music, art, and culture for peace

Music, art, and culture can be powerful tools to make change. They can inspire us. They can unite people. They can heal. They can change hearts and minds. They can help us see things in different ways. There is infinite potential in art and music, and in the use of culture to make positive change. And with social media, messages spread fast, and can reach far and wide.

Here are just some ideas for leveraging the power of art and culture for peace and justice. Use music, performance, poetry, comedy, or storytelling to raise awareness of issues or imagine peaceful futures. Dance or craft for a cause. Build characters and storylines that break stereotypes. Use sports to bring people in conflict together. Celebrate days of peace, human rights, and social justice. Involve cultural icons in peace actions. Join or create public prayer, meditation, or vigils for peace. Create peace imagery or re-imagine symbols. Create or use rituals to promote peace and tolerance. And don’t forget to amplify your message on social media.

10. Create (or support) structures for peace and justice

When so much of our time is spent struggling to change systemic problems, sometimes the best approach we can take is to create structures for peace (or support existing ones). This can be refreshing because it shifts the focus from the problem to the solution. It creates new potential for peace because a structure for peace by its nature is creating something new. It is not chasing the problem. It is exploring new solutions.

There are many types of groups or structures that you can create or support. Here are some ideas. Start or support a community organization, non-profit, or social enterprise working on issues important to you. Create or support mechanisms to report, prevent, or respond to violence. Support the creation (or existing work) of government departments dedicated to promoting peace and justice. Create or join platforms, forums, or networks for peace. Launch a podcast, a blog, a vlog, or other online platforms for peace, or specific to an issue that is important for you.

I hope these ideas have been helpful for you. For more ideas about practical actions you can take to build peace in the world around you, download my free handout 198 Actions for Peace here .

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Will it Ever be Possible to Achieve World Peace?

The Causes of War

World peace through a transforming culture, world peace starts with an individual act, is world peace possible.

Can we really live in peace where every country in the world co-exists with each other? When it comes to world peace, you must understand that war, brutality, killings, or violence happen because of people. The countries did not go to war, but the leaders who have the power to command the army did. It is the people who are living in this world that make or break the world.

When it comes to achieving world peace, you must understand that it is the people, especially the leaders of the nation that determine the war. Leaders are human beings with emotions. They exhibit the same failings and weaknesses as the rest of the people in the world. They can get angry, let their egos drive them, and send troops to war.

Therefore, the real causes of war lie in the unchecked rampaging of human behaviors. And if world peace is to be attained, everyone who is living in this world must educate themselves and raise their intellect by keeping a peaceful ethics in them, especially the leaders.

And to create a peaceful world, people must learn to master themselves, tame their ambition, and never let their egos and greed rule their minds. At this current moment, world peace may seem impossible because a large number of people in this world are yet to achieve enlightenment and raise themselves as the experts at living.

According to PsychologyToday, one great way to become an expert at living is through the achievement of wisdom and joy. When people are happy, they are wise. And when people are wise, they are happy. Thus, if enough people in this world are happy and wise, there will be less violence and conflict. And as long as people feel that they have little or no hope for a good life, unable to tolerate others, and allow their negative behaviors to affect them, war and violence will continue.

After the World War I, the Americans have successfully campaigned for a pact which renounced the use of war as an instrument of national policy. It remains as a statute and was also signed by a few other countries. Well, this commitment may not have lasted, but it can serve as an inspiration for world peace. For example, the states of Costa Rica and Panama have no official armies and Marinaleda, a town in Spain, has no police.

Everyone plays a role in bringing peace to the world. In fact, our surroundings are beginning to change for the better. The United Nations has adopted annual resolutions in supporting of the ‘culture of peace’.

The basis of human thought and behavior are important in making the shift toward world peace. According to a survey, as high as 20% of the Europeans deeply cared about “ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, self-actualization, spirituality, and self-expression”. Each individual has a role in world peace.

Besides, statistics have found that there is a growing appetite for plant-based diets. Over 10% of the population of Israel, Italy, Sweden, and Germany are now vegetarian and this trend is constantly increasing as human started to see the benefits of having a peaceful behavior towards animals. The changed in farming systems is given as one factor which normalized institutional killing in a human species.

According to an article from HuffingtonPost, world peace is possible and it starts with each individual. The article suggested five easy ways how one can take the responsibility and make the world a better place. And below are some of the easy steps mentioned:

1. Finding Inner Peace

Violence often stems from stressful thoughts and the only way to get rid of violence is through finding peace in your mind. The American Institute of Stress reports that 44% of American is feeling more stressed than they did five years ago.

And to find inner, one can practice meditation and exercise. The world is made of societies, and societies are formed because of individuals, thus, finding inner peace in you is the first step in achieving world peace.

2. Perform Selfless Acts of Kindness

A selfless act of kindness can uplift your consciousness and bring comfort and solace to others. When Ellen DeGeneres received the People’s Choice Humanitarian Award, she said, “Deep down we all love one another, and we need to get back to that. We need more of that right now in the world. That is what most of us feel.”

3. Resolve to be Happy

When you are happy and joyful, you will uplift others around you and you will never want to fight or get into conflict with others. It seems that leaders make the decision to go to war because the happy factor is not there.

Researchers at Harvard University, James Fowler, and Nicholas Christakis suggest people’s happiness extends to three degrees of separation. This means that your happiness can affect not only those around you but also those around your circle.

The real barrier to world peace are the people living in this world themselves. It is the individual that can determine their own fate and affect the fate of others. And hence, achieving world peace is possible if enough people raise their consciousness and become an expert at living.

Although world peace may not be possible immediately, it is possible as long as each individual makes causes for it to happen now. One can spread kindness and selflessly help others like what Mother Teresa did. As what Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” And world peace is possible and it has to start with you.

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Here are a few recommended articles for you to read next:

• How to Live in Peace with Yourself and Others: 7 Outstanding Tips
• Top 10 Peaceful Religions of the World
• 20 Most Peaceful Countries in the World to Live in
• What is the Difference Between Being Happy and Having Peace?

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‘Now is the time to unleash Africa’s peace power’ Guterres tells Security Council

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Peace is the key to unlocking Africa’s future and for strengthening the continent’s voice and influence in building peace globally, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday.  

“Now is the time to unleash Africa’s peace power,” he said , opening a debate on its critical role in addressing global security and development challenges, convened by Mozambique, the Council president for May. 

Calling Africa “ an important voice for the global good ”, he cited examples of how the continent has shown “unity and solidarity in a fractured world”, which include focusing on ending poverty and hunger, supporting refugees, achieving sustainable development, and pushing for reform of the decades-old global financial system. 

Ceasefire for Sudan 

Mr. Guterres said that although efforts like these require peace in Africa and beyond, “ too many Africans are caught up in the hell of conflicts or living with the relentless danger of terrorism and violent extremism in their communities.”  

Addressing the war and “deepening humanitarian nightmare” in Sudan, he warned that increased hostilities in El Fasher are “opening an alarming new chapter” in the conflict, now in its second year. 

“ We need a concerted global push for a ceasefire , followed by a comprehensive peace process to end the bloodshed,” he said. 

Silence the guns 

Mr. Guterres outlined three steps to strengthen Africa’s peace leadership, both on the continent and on the global stage. 

“First – we need peace in Africa itself,” he said, highlighting the UN’s partnership with the African Union (AU) and support for its ‘Silencing the Guns’ initiative. 

He also commended the Security Council ’s adoption of resolution 2719 last year which allows AU-led peace support operations that receive their mandates from the Council to access UN assessed contributions.  

The two organizations “will continue working together to defuse conflicts before they escalate, manage them effectively when they occur, and build sustainable peace when they are resolved,” he said. 

Reform outdated institutions 

Secondly, African participation and leadership must be embedded across “the global peace and security architecture”.

He stressed the need to reform the UN Security Council and other global institutions that were established following the Second World War, which are now outdated. 

Structural inequalities have resulted in African states suffering disproportionately from the effects of conflicts, an unjust global financial system, and the climate crisis.  

Praise for Kenya 

Yet at the same time, they are also stepping up and contributing to global peace efforts, he added. 

He commended Kenya for spearheading the upcoming Multilateral Security Support Mission that will be deployed to Haiti to bolster national efforts to quell rampant gang violence.  He also extended praise to other African countries that have offered to send troops. 

The Secretary-General insisted that Africa deserves a voice in the global peace and security architecture. 

A voice among equals 

“But strengthening Africa’s voice can only happen if African countries can participate in global governance structures as equals ,” he said.  “This must include correcting the lack of permanent African representation at this Council.” 

The Secretary-General pointed to the Summit of the Future at UN Headquarters in September as an opportunity to push forward on this and other issues, such as reform of the global financial system. 

A new Security Council 

The AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Bankole Adeoye, underscored that reconfiguration of the global peace and security architecture is imperative.

“The emerging global order must promote renewed and networked multilateralism for the sake of global stability . This is Africa's right and not just a demand,” he said, speaking via video conference. 

Furthermore, the new UN Security Council “must be enlarged, must be inclusive, must be pro-Africa, must be more democratic, must be responsive, must be legitimate, must be equitable, and must be accountable.”

Mr. Adeoye also highlighted the issue of financing for peace operations, calling for “100 per cent unhindered, unconditional access to United Nations assessed contributions for peace and security activities.”

Building lasting peace 

The Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Ambassador Sérgio França Danese of Brazil, upheld its full commitment to assist African countries seeking support.

He spoke of the PBCs work across several pillars, including institution building, electoral processes, rule of law, transitional justice, security sector reform, and the women, peace and security agenda.

“These are only starting points for normalizing states in transition and post-conflict situations,” he said.

" Investment in sustainable development is crucial to long-term social cohesion and stability and must be undertaken in tandem with other initiatives.” 

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Time to Unleash Africa’s Peace Power, Embed Continent’s Leadership into Global Governance, Development Architecture Secretary-General Urges Security Council

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the United Nations Security Council debate “Maintenance of International Peace and Security:  Strengthening the Role of the African State in Addressing Global Security and Development Challenges”, in New York today:

I thank Mozambique for bringing us together to discuss Africa’s critical role in maintaining peace and security.  Today’s discussion is about peace in Africa itself — but also strengthening Africa’s role in peace and development globally.

Africa is an important voice for the global good.  The continent is home to many examples of unity and solidarity in a fractured world.  We see this unity in Africa’s focus on ending poverty and hunger, supporting refugees fleeing across borders and achieving sustainable development.  And we see it in the continent’s efforts to work together to build a modern, diverse, innovative and powerful continental economy to benefit all Africans.

From the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area.  To African countries leading the way on renewable energy systems like solar and wind — a continent with the potential to become a renewable energy super-power. To Africa’s bold calls for reforming the global financial architecture so it better serves and represents the countries who need it most.  All of these efforts require peace in Africa and beyond.

Too many Africans are caught up in the hell of conflicts or living with the relentless danger of terrorism and violent extremism in their communities.  From the countries of the Sahel rocked by unconstitutional changes of government, uncertain political transitions and a growing terrorist threat.  To the spread of terrorism and violent extremism in the Lake Chad Basin, Somalia and elsewhere.  To the continued violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Horn of Africa.  And to the deepening humanitarian nightmare in Sudan, now entering its second year, with increased hostilities in El Fasher opening an alarming new chapter in this conflict.

My Personal Envoy, Mr. Ramtane Lamamra, is working tirelessly on mediation efforts with all parties.  We need a concerted global push for a ceasefire, followed by a comprehensive peace process to end the bloodshed.

The death, hunger, disease and displacement fuelled by these conflicts are playing out against a bleak backdrop.  Many African countries are still suffering the impact of the pandemic, including higher rates of debt, limiting their capacity to fight poverty and hunger.

Meanwhile, climate impacts are escalating, including droughts and ferocious flooding — as we saw recently in east Africa.  Rising geopolitical tensions are also having an impact on the continent.  In some countries, we are seeing grave human rights violations and abuses, an epidemic of gender-based and sexual violence, a flouting of international law and a global climate of impunity.

The human cost of these conflicts is breathtaking.  And the cost to development is incalculable.  Now is the time to unleash Africa’s peace power. We need to strengthen Africa’s peace leadership — on the continent itself and on the global stage.

First — we need peace in Africa itself.  Our partnership with Africa is based on the clear perception that we must work with the African Union based on the principle of African-led solutions for African problems.  The United Nations fully supports Africa’s pursuit of peace through the African Union’s flagship “Silencing the Guns” initiative.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with our African partners to help ensure security, stability and respect for human rights and the rule of law across the continent — in line with my New Vision for the Rule of Law.  We’re working closely with the African Union to strengthen the foundations of stable, peaceful societies — including democratic processes and institutions that people can trust.

We’re working closely with the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and others to end the scourge of terrorism — including support for prevention, legal assistance, investigations, prosecutions, reintegration and rehabilitation and human rights protection. We fully support the establishment of the African Humanitarian Agency to help people caught within complex emergencies. And we’re supporting key processes to build peace in places where it is in short supply.

I am pleased that this Council agreed to our long-standing call to support African Union-led peace support operations — including peace enforcement and counter-terrorism operations — with mandates from the Council and through assessed contributions covering a large chunk of the expenditure.

Resolution 2719 (2023) is a critical milestone.  Our two organizations will be developing a joint road map to take forward this important breakthrough.  Partnerships like this are central to the New Agenda for Peace.  The Agenda connects the dots between investing in development, building strong governance structures and justice systems that people can trust, and creating sustainable peace.

The African Union and the United Nations will continue working together to defuse conflicts before they escalate, manage them effectively when they occur and build sustainable peace when they are resolved.

Second — we need to embed African participation and leadership across the global peace and security architecture.  Following the Second World War, the mechanisms of global governance — including this Council — were designed by the most powerful countries at that time.  Many African countries were still in the process of throwing off the shackles of colonialism.  Since then, the world has changed — but global institutions have not.  Today, African countries continue to be denied a seat at the negotiating table — including at this very Council.

The impacts of these structural inequalities are plain to see. African States suffer disproportionately from the effects of conflicts, an unjust global financial system and the climate crisis.  At the same time, African countries are stepping up and contributing to peaceful solutions beyond the continent.

For example, I commend Kenya for leading the upcoming Multilateral Security Support mission in Haiti — and other African countries for offering to send troops.

Africa deserves a voice in the global peace and security architecture.  But strengthening Africa’s voice can only happen if African countries can participate in global governance structures as equals.  This must include correcting the lack of permanent African representation at this Council.  And it must include reforming the global financial architecture — especially its handling of debt — so African countries have the support they need to climb the development ladder.

September’s Summit of the Future will be an opportunity to push forward on all of these issues.  I have invited all Heads of State to attend.  I count on African Member States to seize the moment and put forward specific proposals aimed at enhancing Africa’s representation within all global governance structures.

We must be clear-eyed about the deep challenges ahead. But the people of Africa have always risen to the challenges of the day.  Peace is the key to unlocking Africa’s future — for Africans themselves, and for strengthening the continent’s voice and influence in building peace around the world. Peace depends on African leadership.

I look forward to working with this Council, and with the Governments, institutions and people of Africa, in this important work.

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Documentary students tackle 21st-century issues in ‘Facing the Façade’ workshop with alumnus

Thousands of students flock to Indiana University Bloomington each year to explore what it takes to work in industries like art, fashion, music, film and television. With world-class resources and encouragement from experienced instructors, students in The Media School recently explored the world of documentary filmmaking. While telling stories through the eyes of others, they discovered more about themselves along the way.

The opportunity came about thanks to Jerald Harkness, an award-winning filmmaker and IU alumnus, and his 1994 documentary highlighting the experiences of eight African American students on the Bloomington campus. A film ahead of its time, “Facing the Façade” received critical acclaim for its revealing portrayal of Black students’ college experience in a largely white environment.

Thirty years later, Harkness was invited to return to his alma mater by former classmate Rachael Stoeltje , who is now director of IU Libraries Moving Image Archive . Together, they partnered with current faculty to guide students through “Facing the Façade in the 21st Century,” the focus of The Media School’s Advanced Documentary Workshop course during the spring semester. The course offered students an opportunity to learn the art and business of documentary filmmaking while bringing attention to often overlooked perspectives.

Susanne Schwibs , award-winning filmmaker and senior lecturer in The Media School, taught the course while Harkness met with students weekly to offer personalized feedback. Together, they offered students an insider perspective from the industry.

It was a full-circle moment to collaborate with Schwibs, since Harkness was a student of hers in the early ’90s, taking the 16mm film class that she still teaches to this day.

“I still see Susanne as my professor,” Harkness said with a smile. “When you’re a film student, you’re facing this big void of the unknown because you really don’t know how to make a film. We’re trying to empower them and help them find their own voices.”

Stoeltje, who secured funding for the workshop from the IU Black Philanthropy Circle and an anonymous donor, also served on a faculty panel that included Media School senior lecturer Bear Brown, lecturer Robin Robinson and senior lecturer Jim Krause, who is also director of Media Arts & Production. Faculty shared insights with workshop students about pitching projects, fundraising, casting, and conducting research and interviews, while offering real-time feedback on the short documentaries students created throughout the semester.

After pitching to the faculty panel, four students were chosen to direct their short film concepts. Student production teams filled the roles of audio engineer, cinematographer and editor. Several of the films that were made focused on the Black student experience at IU, a landscape that Harkness said has changed drastically over the course of three decades.

“In the early ’90s, there wasn’t an internet, social media or YouTube,” Harkness said, which made finding a community of belonging more difficult. “It was a fantastic experience to be a student, but as a Black student there were moments when you wondered where you fit in. With ‘Facing the Façade,’ I wanted to explore that and make peace with it as well.

“Now, I think students are facing the same things that I did, but it’s more nuanced and isn’t as much about race. Each of these students are trying to figure out who they are, where they fit into this whole film production world, and how they can craft their skill sets and interests and translate those into a career.”

Third-year Ph.D. student Ashley Hayes directed “Because We Are” for the class, shining a spotlight on the 50th season of the IU African American Dance Company, of which she is a former member. Hayes, who is studying African American and African Diaspora studies in the College of Arts and Sciences with a minor in media arts and sciences, created her film around the dance company’s practice of “ubuntu.”

“Ubuntu is a word from the Bantu language that describes this idea of ‘I am, because we are,’ based on the fact that I cannot be all that I am unless I rely on the environment I’m part of,” Hayes said. “All these different facets of reality tie into my own, so I can be all I am because of everything else that is around me. The African American Dance Company is the essence of that.”

Hayes said she chose the concept of “ubuntu” because she found a sense of community through the dance company.

“People in the dance company are students but also community members and faculty,” Hayes said. “It is very much a space that teaches people how to embody different principles of Africanist traditions.”

Hayes aspires to work as a cultural consultant on film and television sets that deal with Black culture after she graduates. She said that making “Because We Are” places her one step closer to reaching her goal.

“It’s been such a pleasurable experience,” Hayes said. “I think a large part of that is due to Jerald being so available and so willing to help us believe in ourselves and have access to the people, the places and the opportunities that are available.”

Louise Kern-Kensler, a fifth-year student double majoring in trombone performance at the Jacobs School of Music and media studies at The Media School, created “The Brass Ceiling.” Her short film shows the perspectives of women who are brass musicians and the discrimination they often face when competing for professional roles in an environment dominated by men.

“Jerald made ‘Facing the Façade’ as a way to analyze his experience as a Black student at IU, and I’m making my film as a way to analyze my experience in music as a woman,” Kern-Kensler said.

She said she first thought of the concept while she was in high school; the title of her college essay was “The Brass Ceiling.” During the production process, she and her team members traveled to New York and Texas, interviewing student musicians from the Jacobs School of Music and The Juilliard School, as well as professional trombonist Kirsten Warfield. The interviews weave together similar stories of women pursuing their passion in spite of the hardships they face due to their gender.

During a final screening for the class, Kern-Kensler said her goal was to use film as a conduit to drive change and understand her own experience as a woman who plays a brass instrument. She expressed gratitude to the course instructors for creating the workshop that made her film possible. She plans to submit the documentary to film festivals.

“I took the class as an opportunity to work with talented crew and to acquire resources to make a film and to learn from people like Susanne and Jerald,” Kern-Kensler said. “They’re my two biggest mentors at the school.”

Hayes echoed the same sentiment. She said the mentorship she received from the class gave her confidence that she can achieve her career goals.

“I’ve realized there is a place for what I want to do,” Hayes said. “It can happen, and I can make films.”

Three out of the four final short documentaries made by students can be viewed on the IU Libraries Moving Image Archive website . Harkness’ award-winning film collection , including “Facing the Façade,” can be found at IU’s Black Film Center & Archive.

Julia Hodson

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Guest Essay

What Trump Could Do in Foreign Policy Might Surprise the World

By Curt Mills

Mr. Mills is the executive director of The American Conservative.

Love it or hate it, the United States has an imperial presidency, and in his first term, Donald Trump demonstrated a record of using such powers with noted relish on the world stage. As in many areas, he does not have a conventional approach to global relations. But it may turn out that, like Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush before him, Mr. Trump enjoys engagement with foreign policy.

His particular style of politics can be provocative, of course, but also effective. Mr. Trump’s approach to America’s place in the world is pragmatic or unpredictable or both, and it could offer surprising opportunities for peace.

If Mr. Trump re-enters the Oval Office, he may seek to surprise in his final act, perhaps inspiring parallels, in its unpredictability and volatility, with Nixon and his “madman” foreign policy.

In Mr. Trump’s first term, his results in foreign affairs have generally been underrated. For a “madman,” there were real accomplishments: no new foreign wars, the Abraham Accords between Israel and a handful of Sunni states that many experts on the subject thought were impossible, a focus on China that is now bipartisan, putting allies on notice that they had to more than vaguely contribute to their own defense.

Unless the global landscape suddenly shifts, Mr. Trump would return to the Oval Office facing the sorts of foreign crises — particularly the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East — that he largely avoided in his first term.

But the circumstances would surely not change the way he managed foreign affairs. In his first term Mr. Trump could be the bête noire of the establishment and Republican neoconservatives on Monday (as in his interactions with Kim Jong-un and the NATO leaders). And he could be the vicious spear tip of American power on Tuesday (as in the 2020 airstrike in Baghdad that killed Qassim Suleimani).

In a second term Mr. Trump would likely not assemble a right-wing establishment cabinet of oil executives and generals. He would instead be guided by a new group of establishment figures or pragmatists as well as a cut of advisers associated with the new right who want a broader convulsion in foreign policy and who wonder, with increasing despondence at the state of American culture, if a new Cold War-type enemy, perhaps China, would unify the population.

Members of this new right group increasingly disagree among themselves, particularly on just how far to take it to China and just how interchangeable conservative foreign policy should be with Israel’s.

Among the new pragmatists, the man who succeeded John Bolton as national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, would almost certainly play a key role in a second term, perhaps as defense secretary or secretary of state.

Mr. O’Brien is an understated but powerful lawyer from the West Coast. (Another point in the Trump-Nixon echoes: In 2022, Mr. O’Brien was named chairman of the board of the Richard Nixon Foundation.) He calls himself a Reagan Republican and would be an easy Senate confirmation.

The team might also include the former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, who was Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020. An ally of Mr. O’Brien’s, Mr. Grenell engages in smashmouth interpersonal politics that marked his tumultuous tenure in Berlin. But his style aligns well with Mr. Trump’s approach to diplomacy-as-negotiation.

In addition to the wonkish ideologues and pragmatists, there is an unpredictable milieu of true believers, among them Steve Bannon and the retired colonel Douglas Macgregor, a cult hero on the new right who in the chaos of the 2020-21 transition was installed by Pentagon loyalists to Mr. Trump with the intent of a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This team would suggest a vision — relative aversion to ideology but a tolerance for radicalism — that could fulfill Mr. Trump’s foreign policy approach, which favors a mixture of staying out of trouble and engaging in conflicts decisively and briefly. Washington veterans often react with puzzlement to the idea that Mr. Trump has a foreign policy vision at all. His approach confused people like Mr. Bolton, who criticized Mr. Trump for looking at “things on a transactional basis.”

But Mr. Trump likes to occupy two identities at once: threat and negotiator. And as he showed in a recent interview with Time magazine, he has a shrewd understanding of how to manage his team in negotiations. For example, he said in the interview that Mr. Bolton “served a good purpose” because “every time he walked into a room, people thought you were going to war.”

This again suggests a parallel with Mr. Nixon’s administration. One of his first decisions in the White House was to hire Henry Kissinger as his national security adviser. Even Mr. Kissinger — a Harvard professor who had consulted for Nelson Rockefeller, a rival of Mr. Nixon’s — was surprised by the decision.

Yet Mr. Kissinger helped balance Mr. Nixon’s strident anti-Communist Cold War posturing and kept allies and enemies guessing about his intent. Mr. Nixon’s seemingly wild card tactics boosted the credibility of his threats. He is often remembered today for balance of power, for realpolitik and for moving to end America’s involvement in Vietnam, but he is remembered more for opening ties with Communist China.

It took Mr. Nixon to go to Beijing. Is it truly so imponderable that it could take Mr. Trump to go to Beirut or even Tehran?

You can apply Mr. Trump’s two-positions-at-once approach to various other hot spots. Take Israel. In his recent interview, he reiterated that he would “protect Israel” if war broke out with Iran but also said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “rightfully has been criticized for what took place on Oct. 7.”

He said the Jewish state should “get the job done” in Gaza but also concluded that Israel has managed to lose the public relations battle in this war. You can imagine Mr. Trump, as president, unreservedly supporting Israel in its military campaign in Gaza. But you can equally imagine him speaking in far harsher terms against Mr. Netanyahu than President Biden has, perhaps in pursuit of a cease-fire.

Or take Mr. Trump’s language around Russia and NATO. Last winter, Mr. Trump caused outrage when he said that he’d be willing to let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t spend enough on their defense.

In his Time interview, Mr. Trump said of that earlier comment, “When I say things like that, that’s said as a point of negotiation.”

The criticism around his NATO and Russia comments presupposes that Mr. Trump, the consummate negotiator, would simply remove his greatest point of leverage (membership in the body) out of the gate. The global impression of Mr. Trump as Vladimir Putin’s pawn — and an admirer of autocrats like Mr. Kim — only incentivizes him to surprise in the other direction.

In a second term, there would also be the promise that Mr. Trump would at last attempt to prove the technocrats and Washington bureaucrats wrong — the experts he fired and flouted, the prestige financiers who have mocked him and the lawyers who have tried to imprison him.

Consider what the mere possibility of a Trump win in November plausibly inspired in recent weeks: France is taking up the mantle of independent European defense , and Israel’s offers in negotiations with Hamas have gotten more reasonable .

If Mr. Trump wins in November, he will almost certainly read a life’s worth of vindication into how he does business and the value of his ability to be in two places at once. The uncertainty that comes with his style is poised to once again give him power over America’s soft and hard power in global affairs.

Maybe Mr. Trump can continue to surprise and achieve what Mr. Nixon aspired to. His gravestone in Yorba Linda, Calif., contains a line from his first Inaugural Address: “The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.”

Curt Mills is the executive director of The American Conservative.

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