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ESTABLISHING A GLOBAL SYSTEM OF COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES HOSTING THE SUSTAINABLE PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
(SPD) PROGRAM
The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. (Herbert Spencer)
Basic assumptions
• War settles nothing.
• Peace is more complex than war.
• Establishing and maintaining peace is more difficult than war.
• Wars are caused by man, by the way our political and economic systems have been organized and maintained.
• Extremes of religious fundamentalism lead to violence.
• Environmentally induced conflict is an increasing reality.
• What man has made, man can change . . . but powerful tools of change are needed.
• Leadership of all nations must face the problems of peace.
• Citizens of all nations must hold their political and business leaders to higher standards of peace fulfilling performance.
• World-wide citizens will make essential contributions to peace when they have training and skill in techniques to do so.
• Colleges and universities, each with a Peace Room at its core, will provide the system and training for men and women of courage, patience and wisdom to create and fulfill a vision of peace.
• These tools, used with compassion, respect, and the certain consequences of forgiveness, will make the vision of peace a reality.
• Man's violence to man, and man's
violence to Earth are inseparable issues of peace.
What are we going to do?
• Rexamine and question beliefs that have become dangerously dysfunctional.
• Chief among these is that we are
separate.
• Provide tools that are appropriate to each culture for this task.
• These tools will be fueled by detailed information assembled by students.
• Purpose of this information base is to be able to understand more fully the basis of traditional fears and historical animosities, and the consequences of ignoring ecological imperatives.
• Seek consensus about paths to
peace with justice.
Why is this important?
• The possibility of earth-ending conflict remains.
• Huge arsenals of weapons of mass destruction still exist. Some of these weapons may have "disappeared" from former control.
• Ethnic strife and international terrorism are increasing. Borders offer scant protection.
• Ecological crises are transitional, truly global
• There are inadequate opportunities for peace
activism below the nation state system.
• There is a huge potential for peace action from individual citizens and private organizations.
• A system to create new tools for peace work
and a place to link them with a host of new peace workers is possible.
How are we going to do it?
• Use the model of the modern War Room to
create a global system of colleges/universities hosting the Sustainable Peace
and Development program, each with a Peace Room at its
core.
• This global system will be the incubator that nurtures tools capable of articulating regional peace strategies.
• These
strategies will support peace work and conflict resolution at every level
— international, regional, national, city, village and home.
• Provide opportunities and recruit from the full spectrum of world citizens, children to elders, for peace workers.
• Create a climate that will buttress the will
to use these new tools for peace.
Who will do it?
• Students with fresh, hopeful energy to assure their own peaceful future.
• Universities and colleges fulfilling their service obligation to the world community.
• Elders with earned wisdom and life experiences of the futility of war.
• Other people with vision and the uniqueness of their being to contribute.
• Private institutions confident of their ability to contribute to the solution of seemingly intractable ecological and war and peace issues.
• Enlightened governments seeking the best for their citizens and the world through the real security of peace with justice.
• International businesses bold and
wise enough to develop economic, manufacturing and trade strategies based
upon sustained global peace.
When will it be done?
•
Phase one is underway. Colleges
and universities around the world are joining as hosts of the Sustainable Peace
and Development program.
• In phase
two, some of the host schools will become Flagship hosts and offer training to
faculty and students of other institutions on how to fully implement the SPD
program on their home campuses.
• In following years, the global web of host institutions will be complete and a second generation SPD system will be offered to the United Nations headquarters and other institutions
What will be the impact?
• New opportunities for conflict resolution and preemptive peace work, where the problems reside, will be created.
• For the first time ever, world-wide legislatures, organizations and individual activists will have tools and information to use for peace work equal to or better than that available to the executive branches of governments.
• Hosting colleges/universities will be available for training in conflict resolution and as a site for peace negotiations and conflict resolution.
• The global SPD system will be available to support humanitarian and disaster relief operations
P.E.A.C.E.
Homepage Issues Saving Civilization? Global System
Database Flagship Center Calendar
Virtual Center P.E.A.C.E. Inc. Status
Peace Advisor Constitutional Amendment
World
Outreach
Reviewed April, 2008
email: sherlight@peaceroom.com