(Une version française suit en dessous) A few years ago I was encouraged by the movement of the Arab Spring, writing in this blog that “the Arab spring and the ongoing democratic revolutions in the Arab countries are providing an important new momentum towards a culture of peace.” And in the spring of this year … Read more
(Une version française suit en dessous) As described in the first blog for this month, the Ukraine war is the result of mistaken policy decisions by the United States and NATO in 1997 which led to the expansion of NATO up to the borders of Russia. Already, back in 1997, when I was working for … Read more
(Une version française suit en dessous) We have advanced to a new level, an historic step forward, in the struggle for a culture of peace. For the first time there are so many virtual events for the culture of peace free and open to the public that we have begun listing them on CPNN. Now … Read more
(See below for French) It will soon be 20 years since I wrote “An early history of the culture of peace.” During these years there have been thousands of initiatives described in the reports from the culture of peace decade and reports on the culture of peace news network. However, we have not yet seen … Read more
This summer and fall is seeing an increase in the number of international conferences dedicated to the culture of peace and basing their analysis on the Declaration and Program of Action for a Culture of Peace that was adopted 20 years ago by the UN General Assembly. The UN resolution provides a holistic, positive view … Read more
This month’s CPNN bulletin describes the “slow news” of culture of peace as it has been developing for some time now in Africa. The reforestation of the Great Green Wall and the Plant a Million Trees initiative seem to symbolize the slow pace of the process, especially when one recalls that the pre-colonial peace mechanism of Africa was to … Read more
Let me start by quoting this month’s CPNN Bulletin. “We’ve seen two shocking election results recently: the defeat of the referendum for the peace accords in Colombia, and the election of Donald Trump in the USA based on a racist and xenophobic campaign. What does it mean? It means that voters in the two countries … Read more
Now that there is a ceasefire in Colombia, as described in this month’s bulletin of CPNN, the question arises whether a culture of peace can be maintained afterwards. When I was working on the culture of peace in UNESCO, I experienced a similar situation in two countries, El Salvador and Mozambique. Both of them emerged … Read more
The various initiatives at the level of the city described in this month’s CPNN bulletin are devoted to these four different goals: peace, nonviolence, compassion and culture of peace. Certainly the initiatives are complementary and they have the potential to join in a unified struggle to change the world. But their unity remains to be achieved. What … Read more
This month’s bulletin gives us an idea of where progress is being made (or not being made) towards a culture of peace if we compare it to the CPNN bulletins of 2015. On the good side Progress is being made at a grass-roots level by social movements for sustainable development and food sovereignty, often led or inspired … Read more