Center for War & Peace Studies

The Center for War & Peace Studies seeks to create an alliance of nations who can work together productively, jointly implementing measures to promote prosperity, sustain the environment, protect human rights, and maintain peace across nations.

Center For War & Peace Studies

The Center for War & Peace Studies aims to create the necessary channels so that this federation, receiving support from people all over the world, can achieve universal patronage to ensure effective governance across the world.

The Center for War & Peace Studies or the CWPS aims to establish universal collaboration and mutual aid in order to eliminate war and unnecessary human suffering.  The CWPS was initially established to render the United Nations more representative and more effective as an organization working for effective international governance.  It recognizes that while there are issues better managed independently by the individual nation states, there are many issues the warrant universal management and global solutions.  These issues include nuclear disarmament, sustainable development, and conflict resolution between countries.

The United States is a result of the different states forming themselves into one body to better address issues that needed solutions formulated and accepted across the states.  In a similar manner, challenges that affect all nations call for solutions that only a strong coalition of nations can provide.  As the environment changes, peoples and cultures likewise need to evolve if progress is to be achieved.  The massive global decline, particularly in the areas of economy, climate, and world security, makes it essential for nations to coalesce to find the solutions to ensure their survival.

The Center for War & Peace Studies sees it as their mission to help facilitate this by providing the channels of dialogue, analysis, and study. It calls for international commitment to a cohesive and united effort in overcoming the crises that threaten this century.

The CWPS has worked for more than forty years now at advocating reforms to make the United Nations a more effective organization. Myron Kronisch, Ambassador at large of the CWPS, along with his co-members in the Board of Directors, continues to promote the importance of the General Assembly using weighted voting to decide actions to be taken.  The Security Council needs to include 12 seats – 4 single-state regions and 8 multi-state regions. All of the 193 member-states will be represented, directly or indirectly, on the Security Council.  The veto will be eliminated gradually over five years. The CWPS continues with its campaign for reforms in the United Nations, working for the support of member states to accomplish constructive change.<P>

Online Courses From the United States Institute for Peace

Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent Movements

This course is a multidisciplinary exploration of civilian-backed movements and campaigns that fight for justice and civil rights. Taught by Daryn Cambridge, Maria Stephan and Althea Middleton-Detzner, the course is free for a limited period of time.

Civilian-based movements have been rising around the world in response to deep-rooted social and political problems. Citizens are organizing and joining movements and activities that fight corruption, unaccountable governance, discrimination, environmental problems, tyranny, foreign occupation and terrorism. Despite the absence of guns and explosives, peaceful protests, sit-ins, boycotts and other similar tactics are becoming a force to reckon with, especially when leveraged with political and traditional means.

USIP

Conflict Analysis

The United States Institute for Peace uses case-based scenarios in this introductory course to conflict analysis.

Good conflict management process requires sound conflict analysis, from prevention to reconciliation. Effective intervention programs require an understanding of the nature and nuances of conflict and its context. Conflict analysis is also the key to developing good prevention and mitigation strategy, enabling decision makers to identify core priorities and understand the possible outcomes of their actions and policy.

Demystifying Monitoring and Evaluation for Practitioners

Due to the shortage of key resources, gathering evidence is becoming an indispensable part of peacebuilding. The United States Institute for Peace developed this course to shed light on the practice of monitoring and evaluation. The course will cover useful tools that peacebuilders can deploy in conflict-afflicted zones.

The need for evidence has never been this critical for peacebuilding. The process of establishing evidence-based work with efficacy that can be proven objectively is such a common challenge faced by growing professions like peacebuilding. This requires hypothesizing, adapting old ideas to modern challenges and experimenting with new ones. Through effective monitoring and evaluation, the cost-effectiveness of peacebuilding as a conflict resolution and prevention tool can be proven and measured.

Through this scenario-based course, the United States Institute for Peace seeks to equip students with better understanding of monitoring and evaluation so they can effectively manage projects that can be evaluated more easily. This helps minimize risks to stakeholders, allows participants to maximize the performance of projects and prevents resource misappropriation.

Strategic Peacebuilding

This United States Institute for Peace course aims to enable students to develop comprehensive and strategic peacebuilding approaches. Peacebuilding is taught from cross-disciplinary perspectives to emphasize the central concepts and practices used by scholars, decision makers and peacebuilders to end war and injustices. The course draws from multiple disciplines like psychology, sociology, political science, economics, international relations, anthropology and religion.

Gustavus Adolphus College Peace Studies

What exactly is the definition of peace? As a potential Peace Studies student, it is important to understand that peace is not just tantamount to the absence of war. This is known as negative peace. Its definition is so much more than that. Peace means that there are certain conditions that need to be present in order to ensure that peace and justice are sustainable in a specific area. For instance, clean food and water, education for women and children alike, protection from harm, and all basic human rights need to be available.

Gustavus Adolphus College Peace Studies

Peace studies is not a very common college course that many choose to take on, but there is no doubt that its popularity is growing steadily. Peace studies involves several disciplines in the academic field that run the gamut from political science, philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, theology, anthropology and more. Overall, peace studies aims to help students to use the aforementioned branches of study in order to: 1) come to a clear understanding of the reasons why armed conflict occurs around the world; 2) formulate solutions that are geared towards preventing war, resolving conflict, ending genocide, eliminating terrorism, minimizing human rights violations; and 3) building systems and societies where peace and justice flourish.

The history of Peace Studies goes all the way back to the 1950s and 1960s. In Europe, peace research institutes had begun to be established. These include some of the most renowned peace research institutions at present. Some examples include the Department of Peace and Conflict Research in Sweden as well as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Gustavus Adolphus College Peace Studies

In the United States, historic peace churches were the first to establish colleges that offered courses centered on peace studies. This number ballooned when the Vietnam War ended and nuclear arms began to accumulate. In this day and age, there are around 400 colleges and universities that offer peace studies programs. Despite this small number, there are a plethora of books and journals available on the subject. There is an abundant number of scholars as well and an established curriculum.

Of course, last but not least, the mission of Gustavus Adolphus College is in line with the goal of this program in a number of aspects. One, it involves multiple disciplines in its study and it also takes on an international vantage point in the process. Secondly, it underlines the importance of developing one’s values as one seeks to grow on an intellectual scale, and finally, it motivates students to pour their efforts and energies into creating a world where peace and justice rule and reign.

Gustavus Adolphus College is additionally involved in a related effort which embodies its mission for peace. This is their annual Nobel Conference.

Here is a video of just one meaningful presentation for one inspired by the awe of the universe.

Justice and Peace Studies at St. Thomas University

There is much injustice and violence in the world.  But does anyone do anything about it? Just like with issues of climate change, conflicts between different religions, and racial discrimination, there seems to be no solution on the horizon.

Hope beckons though.  The University of St. Thomas has the Justice and Peace Studies department to make students aware that they can do something about social conflict, poverty, and injustice and that they should get involved and make a difference.

Justice and Peace Studies has its firm foundation in Catholic social instruction and in respect for other world convictions and faiths.  It endeavors to provide its students a deeper awareness and concern for the vulnerable and the poor section of society – this knowledge prompting them toward purposive action for advancing the cause of the common good.

The Justice and Peace Studies department seeks to shape students by using what they call the “Circle of Praxis.” It provides its students a wealth of knowledge and information, empowering them with the tools necessary to look into factors like culture, wealth, and power and understand the roles that each plays in creating conditions of injustice and violence.

The university is engaged in the mission of educating leaders who are morally responsible. As such, it fosters conditions so that their students can mature into individuals with a deep understanding and appreciation of the great spectrum of worldviews which exist and seriously consider how these can be harnessed to achieve universal justice and peace.

Aside from giving an intellectual and analytical framework, however, the department focuses on providing the students the opportunity for engaged learning. The department facilitates the students’ involvement in real-life situations of social conflict, poverty, and injustice. It encourages out-of-classroom learning by having students work together on projects within the school as well as with the community by making them ally with different community organizations. Students are also encouraged to broaden their exposure by getting double majors and international studies or joining immersion programs.

The Justice and Peace Studies department makes students aware that it is not enough to acquire knowledge and fresh perspectives.  What is essential is the action that grows from such awareness. Students are encouraged to look into what exactly they can DO to effect social change.  They are made to go through internships so they have the opportunity to make some of these action plans a reality.

Justice and Peace Studies make students question the current situation of lack of peace and justice in the world.  They are encouraged to envision a new world and made aware that this vision can become a reality only if they develop a strong commitment to do something about it. Log on to http://www.stthomas.edu/justpeace/ for more information.

Peace Studies: An Academic Discipline

Peace Studies is an academic field that combines many academic disciplines or schools of thought including philosophy, psychology, theology, anthropology, history, sociology, and political science among others. It aims to equip its students with the foundation necessary for understanding the roots of armed conflict, developing the means for the prevention and resolution of human rights violation, terrorism, genocide, and war, and building just and peaceful structures and societies.

Peace Studies finds its roots in the middle 1900’s in Europe when many peace research institutions were established.  Among the first and most highly-respected institutions of this kind are the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Uppsala University’s Department of Peace and Conflict Research in Sweden, and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

In the United States, the colleges associated with the notable peace churches of the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite, and Quaker were among the first ones to include peace studies in their curriculum. The period following the Vietnam War and the significant build-up of nuclear arms in the 1980’s saw a substantial increase in the academic courses in peace studies.

Today, there are an estimated 400 universities and colleges across the world offering peace studies programs of one type or the other.  Some, like the Kroc Institute, offer advanced academic degree programs in peace studies in graduate school.  The Kroc Institute was established in 1986 to provide direction and leadership in the field of peace studies.  Today, peace studies is a widely accepted field of study that many organizations draw upon. Such organizations include the United Nations, the military, government, civil society groups, humanitarian agencies, and foreign ministries.

This academic field has been around for more than five decades now.  It already has a set curriculum, a noteworthy base of students and professors, and a literature of note including journals and books.  Its traditional method and practice of teaching goes beyond the classroom to include international studies, internships, and experiential learning.

This academic discipline seeks to enlighten individuals about many current issues including terrorism, religious conflict, ethnic violence, civil war, the nuclear arms race, and genocide.  It covers a broad spectrum of essential issues affecting nations across the world including human rights, social change, justice, violence, conflict, and peace. It is remarkable to note that the concept of peace in this particular academic field is not limited to the absence of war.  Peace refers to man being able to live in conditions of sustainable and just peace, such conditions comprising the availability of food and water, education, security from physical violence, and other human rights.

There are many careers open to graduates of this field.  They can become mediators, activists, businessmen, government officials, negotiators, educators, and researchers.  They can work in the many organizations established to achieve conflict resolution, protect the environment, and fight for human rights.  They can work on jobs requiring a firm grasp of economics, human growth and development, and international law.