Resting on a convincing body of evidence that violence is not a necessary component of conflict among states and between states and non-state actors, World BEYOND War asserts that war itself can be ended. We humans have lived without war for most of our existence and most people live without war most of the time. Warfare arose about 10,000 years ago (only 5% of our existence as Homo Sapiens) and spawned a vicious cycle as peoples, fearing attack by militarized states, found it necessary to imitate them; and so began the cycle of violence that has culminated in the last 100 years in a condition of permawar. War now threatens to destroy civilization as weapons have become ever more destructive. However, in the last 150 years, revolutionary new knowledge and methods of nonviolent conflict management have been developing that lead us to assert that it is time to end warfare and that we can do so by mobilizing millions around a global effort.
Here you will find the pillars of war which must be taken down so that the whole edifice of the War System can collapse, and here are the foundations of peace, already being laid, on which we will build a world where everyone will be safe.
This book presents a comprehensive blueprint for peace rooted in three broad strategies for humanity to end war: 1) demilitarizing security, 2) managing conflicts without violence, and 3) creating a culture of peace. These are the interrelated components of our system: the frameworks, processes, tools and institutions necessary for dismantling the war machine and replacing it with a peace system that will provide a more assured common security.
Gittins, Phill: - Phill Gittins, PhD, is World BEYOND War's Education Director. He has 15+ years' programming, analysis, and leadership experience in the areas of peace, education, and youth. He has particular expertise in context-specific approaches to peace programming; peacebuilding education; and youth inclusion in research and action. To date, he has lived, worked, and travelled in over 50 countries across 6 continents; taught in schools, colleges, and universities in eight countries; and led experiential training and training-of-trainers for hundreds of individuals on peace and conflict processes. Other experience includes work in youth offending prisons; oversight management for youth and community projects; and consultation for public and non-profit organisations on peace, education, and youth issues. Phill has received multiple awards for his contributions to peace and conflict work, including the Rotary Peace Fellowship and the Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace. He is also a Peace Ambassador for the Institute for Economics and Peace. He earned his PhD in International Conflict Analysis, MA in Education, and a BA in Youth and Community Studies. He also holds postgraduate qualifications in Peace and Conflict Studies, Education and Training, and Teaching in Higher Education, and is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner, counsellor, and project manager by training.
Hiller, Patrick: - Patrick, a former member of World BEYOND War's Board, is a peace scientist who is committed in his personal and professional life to create a world beyond war. He is the Executive Director of the War Prevention Initiative by the Jubitz Family Foundation and teaches conflict resolution at Portland State University. He is actively involved in publishing book chapters, academic articles and newspaper op-eds. His work is almost exclusively related to the analysis of war and peace and social injustice and advocacy for nonviolent conflict transformation approaches. He studied and worked on those topics while living in Germany, Mexico and the United States. He talks regularly at conferences and other venues about the The Evolution of a Global Peace System and produced a short documentary with the same name.
Shifferd, Kent: - Kent holds a Ph.D. in history from Northern Illinois University and taught for thirty years at Northland College where he directed the Peace Studies program. He was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, a twenty-one campus consortium, and served several terms as its Executive Director.
