Building cultures of peace in the world: one peace center at a time.

The world has become "out of balance," according to sociologist and peace researcher Elise Boulding (2002). Many societies throughout the world today presume that war and violent confrontation are necessary in order to resolve conflict. This is simply not true. We need not allow the warring and violent nature of our societies to supersede their peaceableness. To do this, the world is in need of institutions and environments that elevate and explicitly address qualities of peaceableness. Such overtly designed spaces, which advocate and instill peaceful approaches to conflict and concern for humanity, need to be less exceptional and more pervasive in our lives. These spaces are essential in helping to build the cultures of peace which will lead to a world in balance.

CULTURES OF PEACE

If cultures of peace are the essence of societies living in balance, it is necessary to understand what cultures of peace are, how they can be identified, how societies and governments can develop cultures of peace, and what the benefits are to having a society and government that embody cultures of peace.

In the early 1980s, the United Nations declared that 1986 would be the International Year of Peace. In support of this agenda and to empower humanity and counter the myth that biological determinism is responsible for violence and warring actions, a group of scientists created and adopted the Seville Statement on violence. The scientists concluded that humanity could be "freed from the bondage of biological pessimism and empowered with confidence to undertake the transformative tasks needed" (Seville, 1986). Furthermore, using the Preamble of the UNESCO Constitution, their statement said, "just as...

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