world peace argumentative essay

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World peace is not only possible but inevitable

September 20, 2020.

Nika Saeedi

Team Leader, Prevention of Violent Extremism, UNDP's Global Focal Point on MHPSS; Religion; and Hate Speech

COVID-19 has shifted our world. Over the last six months, no matter where we live, our lives, assumptions, and relationships have changed. Now, more than ever, we have witnessed people from all backgrounds and all ages rise to assist each other

While communities have formed networks of mutual support, many of the institutions mandated to support them have failed to fully harness and amplify the wealth of capacities and support structures that already exist. In international development in particular, a key blind spot that limits the effectiveness of our work exists in the rhetoric we use to understand the communities we work with.

UNDP, along with many other partners, continues to advance new approaches to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, but our continued use of terminology that fails to fully embrace the power of people impedes the transformative potential of our work. This can also lead to inadequate policy and programming, or to insufficient – or inappropriate – action. One of the most prominent examples of this is our tendency to target support to individuals and communities facing poverty, conflict, or other sources of instability by identifying them as ‘vulnerable’ people.

For example, the problem with categorizing  women as vulnerable group project women’s passivity and helplessness, denying them agency and power in the processes of change. A radical reaction to portraying women as vulnerable in recent years has been an over glorification of women’s role as fighters in support of violent extremist groups, hindering their capacity and role as peacebuilders.

Words matter. They shape mindsets, and mindsets shapes approaches and outcomes. There is an important distinction between a vulnerable person and a person living in a vulnerable circumstance. When we define people by their circumstances, we fail to engage with them as multidimensional beings. It’s time for UNDP to move from using ‘vulnerability’ as a means of defining the people it supports, to considering all people as protagonists for change.

This might allow us  to meet people’s aspirations  and assist us in assessment and conceptualization of where inequality stems from and who has a role in combating it. By moving away from a deprivation perspective, which leads to divisive mentalities about the capacity of particular groups of people, we are better positioned to recognize the reality of humanity’s common journey in building a peaceful world, and the role of each individual as a protagonist in it. We can start this journey by changing the words we use and therefore the whole narrative from vulnerability to empowerment and constructive resilience.

Whether this reconceptualization of what unites us to be reached only after a global crisis such as this pandemic has revealed the cost of humanity’s stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, or is to be reached through consultation and dialogue, is the choice before all.

We can choose to graduate from the idea of labeling women, youth, racial, religious and ethnic minorities as ‘vulnerable groups in the discussions that guide our decision-making. We can embark on a journey with greater clarity of vision and determination to question and reflect on how our policy and programming promote the nobility of them and draw on their experience.

To accept that the individual, the community, and the institutions of society are the protagonists of civilization building, and to act accordingly, opens up great possibilities for human happiness and allows for the creation of environments in which the true powers of the human spirit can be released.

Several opportunities to enhance our work with peacebuilders, activists, and other populations in bringing about sustainable change and to ensure we recognize and articulate with greater clarity their latent capacity may include the following:

• To  stand with women peacebuilders to ensure they are recognized for their work and courage, have full inclusion and representation in local and global peace and recovery processes and are protected against threats and are receiving the resources  to carry out their work. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of WPS, and UNDP is proud to join the International Civil Society Action Network(ICAN) and the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) as they launch the global #shebuildspeace call to action and campaign building on our partnership on Invisible Women .  
• To recognize the powers endowed in people of faith, especially women of faith, at all levels. Women of faith are actively engaging in the local peace process and they are advocating against hate speech, initiatives addressing issues connected to the environment, like climate. UNDP and UN Women report on Conflicting Identities: The Nexus between Masculinities, Femininities and Violent Extremism in Asia recommend Programming take a whole-of-family and hole-of-community approach when designing interventions. 
• To recognize the essentiality of community-based peacebuilding as parallel or pre-requisite to high-level negotiations. The effects of COVID-19 proved that local trust, access and resilience is essential part of social cohesion .  
• To include and appreciate young climate change advocates , environmental defenders and environmental journalists who have recognized that creation is an organic whole and they are promoting systems required to respect the earth and to organize and fully utilize its raw materials. Their inclusion in essential in programs that promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies. 
• To acknowledge the role of storytellers who provoke conversations, initiate reflections and ; and work of volunteer online defenders  and work of volunteer online defenders from across the globe combating trolls who spread hate speech.
• To show gratitude to the unique contribution of Indigenous peoples to our planet and our common future. 
• To recognize persons with disabilities as having significant experience and innovative approaches to navigating barriers in their daily lives.
• To learn how people make decisions and act on them, how they think about, influence, and relate to one another, and how they develop beliefs and attitudes. We are working with young people to apply behavioral insights to address violent extremism in countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The innovation and resilience shown by communities amidst the pandemic have underscored the need for more expansive understandings of human relationships, and to place more emphasis on identifying the latent capacities and desires of those we hope to serve. This means believing in people and their desires to be sources of peace and justice. This means opening our eyes to the extent of people’s capacity so that we can see more peacebuilders and changemakers in more places. This means embracing the oneness of humankind and human nobility as a foundation for how we develop our policies and programmes.

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Is World Peace Possible?

Peace may be closer than we think..

Posted December 24, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

Peace is a timeless and universal vision belonging to all, and it has forever been a multidisciplinary interest. The great ideals and perennial values of the world’s religions serve not only as beacons to better times, when all will live together in harmony and good will, but they are also designed, when put into practice and lived by, to represent a promise of what humanity is capable of, maybe even created for.

The Golden Rule can be seen as a foundation for a principle of justice that, when extended from the individual to the global level, becomes the basis for the fulfillment of the promise of peace on earth.

At the end of the 18th century, philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed in his essay Perpetual Peace a program to be implemented by governments that would abolish standing armies, eliminate interference of one state with another, and prevent national funds from being used to create friction with other nations. These steps and more, including the rights of all people, as citizens of the world, to experience universal hospitality, would be the foundation on which to build a lasting peace. This essay influenced not only European thought and political practice but was also well represented in the formation of the United Nations.

The founder of experimental psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, who also founded folk psychology— what became cultural psychology—wrote in 1912 of how the psychological and cultural development of humanity has evolved through stages toward a consciousness of “mankind as a unity,” when national affiliations give way to world-wide humanistic concerns. This evolutionary stage can now be seen as where we are headed, and as a prerequisite to world peace.

World unity seems to be where the evolutionary flow is heading, favoring cooperation over competition . But is world peace a promise to be fulfilled, or one that will never be kept? Is it possible that world peace is an inevitable outcome of our collective evolution?

As Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith makes clear in his chapter “Is World Peace Possible?” in Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future , “peace isn’t something that only a group of world leaders will achieve, no matter how good their intentions. When peace erupts on Earth, it will come from individuals everywhere who have entered a new state of consciousness.”

He believes peace is inherent in our species, that it is now exerting itself on an increasingly global scale, and that it is the people who know they are facing a daunting task and work at it anyway who are making a significant difference. This is the way it has always been. When faced with a problem that seems intractable, people find a way around it instead of resigning themselves to it. People have always brought about change in this way, whether it was fighting the challenges of seemingly incurable diseases or achieving civil rights. Those who have won against great odds have pioneered paradigm shifts. This is what makes global peace possible.

It helps a great deal to know what peace really means. It’s not just an absence of conflict. Beckwith says, “peace is the dynamic of harmonizing good. It is a quality within us.” This understanding opens up so many options, not only to be a peace-builder, but also to live peace from within in everything one does in life. As an inner quality, peace becomes something others can pick up on, notice on an energy level, and emulate in their own actions. This way, peace becomes contagious.

As Beckwith puts it, being able to really see “something from another’s point of view leads to the birth of compassion. With compassion, there is understanding; from understanding comes dialogue. When dialogue emerges, then a way out of no way emerges. With empathy, compassion, understanding, and dialogue, people can see a solution that wasn’t there before; a shift in consciousness happens to enable a new insight.”

War is part of our dysfunction; it’s not a reflection of who we are in our highest form. There are many encouraging signs of a new paradigm emerging, of green markets, solar markets, holistic medicine markets, and more, leading a transformation toward a peaceful world.

As Beckwith reminds us, “peace is in the journey, with every step we take. We carry it with us, and its impact is felt on a much wider scale. We all have to find our own neighborhood, in our own community, where we’re willing to share our gift. Many people don’t realize that small groups of people around the world doing things with compassion have an impact on the mental and emotional atmosphere of the entire world. By having peace within, we build peace all around us.”

The promise of world peace has been there for millennia; it is up to us—now—to bring it into reality.

Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith, "Is World Peace Possible?" in Atkinson, R., Johnson, K., and Moldow, D. (eds.) (2020). Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future. New York: Atria Books. 33-38.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Maine and Nautilus Book Award-winning author of The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness.

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World Peace Essay: Prompts, How-to Guide, & 200+ Topics

Throughout history, people have dreamed of a world without violence, where harmony and justice reign. This dream of world peace has inspired poets, philosophers, and politicians for centuries. But is it possible to achieve peace globally? Writing a world peace essay will help you find the answer to this question and learn more about the topic.

In this article, our custom writing team will discuss how to write an essay on world peace quickly and effectively. To inspire you even more, we have prepared writing prompts and topics that can come in handy.

• ✍️ Writing Guide
• 🦄 Essay Prompts
• ✔️ World Peace Topics
• 🌎 Pacifism Topics
• ✌️ Catchy Essay Titles
• 🕊️ Research Topics on Peace
• 💡 War and Peace Topics
• ☮️ Peace Title Ideas
• 🌐 Peace Language Topics

🔗 References

✍️ how to achieve world peace essay writing guide.

Stuck with your essay about peace? Here is a step-by-step writing guide with many valuable tips to make your paper well-structured and compelling.

1. Research the Topic

The first step in writing your essay on peace is conducting research. You can look for relevant sources in your university library, encyclopedias, dictionaries, book catalogs, periodical databases, and Internet search engines. Besides, you can use your lecture notes and textbooks for additional information.

Among the variety of sources that could be helpful for a world peace essay, we would especially recommend checking the Global Peace Index report . It presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis of current trends in world peace. It’s a credible report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, so you can cite it as a source in your aper.

Here are some other helpful resources where you can find information for your world peace essay:

• United Nations Peacekeeping
• International Peace Institute
• United States Institute of Peace
• European Union Institute for Security Studies
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

2. Create an Outline

Outlining is an essential aspect of the essay writing process. It helps you plan how you will connect all the facts to support your thesis statement.

To write an outline for your essay about peace, follow these steps:

• Determine your topic and develop a thesis statement .
• Choose the main points that will support your thesis and will be covered in your paper.
• Organize your ideas in a logical order.
• Think about transitions between paragraphs.

Here is an outline example for a “How to Achieve World Peace” essay. Check it out to get a better idea of how to structure your paper.

• Definition of world peace.
• The importance of global peace.
• Thesis statement: World peace is attainable through combined efforts on individual, societal, and global levels.
• Practive of non-violent communication.
• Development of healthy relationships.
• Promotion of conflict resolution skills.
• Promotion of democracy and human rights.
• Support of peacebuilding initiatives.
• Protection of cultural diversity.
• Encouragement of arms control and non-proliferation.
• Promotion of international law and treaties.
• Support of intercultural dialogue and understanding.
• Restated thesis.
• Call to action.

You can also use our free essay outline generator to structure your world peace essay.

3. Write Your World Peace Essay

Now, it’s time to use your outline to write an A+ paper. Here’s how to do it:

• Start with the introductory paragraph , which states the topic, presents a thesis, and provides a roadmap for your essay. If you need some assistance with this part, try our free introduction generator .
• Your essay’s main body should contain at least 3 paragraphs. Each of them should provide explanations and evidence to develop your argument.
• Finally, in your conclusion , you need to restate your thesis and summarize the points you’ve covered in the paper. It’s also a good idea to add a closing sentence reflecting on your topic’s significance or encouraging your audience to take action. Feel free to use our essay conclusion generator to develop a strong ending for your paper.

4. Revise and Proofread

Proofreading is a way to ensure your essay has no typos and grammar mistakes. Here are practical tips for revising your work:

• Take some time. Leaving your essay for a day or two before revision will give you a chance to look at it from another angle.
• Read out loud. To catch run-on sentences or unclear ideas in your writing, read it slowly and out loud. You can also use our Read My Essay to Me tool.
• Make a checklist . Create a list for proofreading to ensure you do not miss any important details, including structure, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting.
• Ask someone for feedback. It is always a good idea to ask your professor, classmate, or friend to read your essay and give you constructive criticism on the work.
• Note down the mistakes you usually make. By identifying your weaknesses, you can work on them to become a more confident writer.

🦄 World Peace Essay Writing Prompts

Looking for an interesting idea for your world peace essay? Look no further! Use our writing prompts to get a dose of inspiration.

How to Promote Peace in the Community Essay Prompt

Promoting peace in the world always starts in small communities. If people fight toxic narratives, negative stereotypes, and hate crimes, they will build a strong and united community and set a positive example for others.

In your essay on how to promote peace in the community, you can dwell on the following ideas:

• Explain the importance of accepting different opinions in establishing peace in your area.
• Analyze how fighting extremism in all its forms can unite the community and create a peaceful environment.
• Clarify what peace means in the context of your community and what factors contribute to or hinder it.
• Investigate the role of dialogue in resolving conflicts and building mutual understanding in the community.

How to Promote Peace as a Student Essay Prompt

Students, as an active part of society, can play a crucial role in promoting peace at various levels. From educational entities to worldwide conferences, they have an opportunity to introduce the idea of peace for different groups of people.

Check out the following fresh ideas for your essay on how to promote peace as a student:

• Analyze how information campaigns organized by students can raise awareness of peace-related issues.
• Discuss the impact of education in fostering a culture of peace.
• Explore how students can use social media to advocate for a peaceful world.
• Describe your own experience of taking part in peace-promoting campaigns or programs.

How Can We Maintain Peace in Our Society Essay Prompt

Maintaining peace in society is a difficult but achievable task that requires constant attention and effort from all members of society.

We have prepared ideas that can come in handy when writing an essay about how we can maintain peace in our society:

• Investigate the role of tolerance, understanding of different cultures, and respect for religions in promoting peace in society.
• Analyze the importance of peacekeeping organizations.
• Provide real-life examples of how people promote peace.
• Offer practical suggestions for how individuals and communities can work together to maintain peace.

Youth Creating a Peaceful Future Essay Prompt

Young people are the future of any country, as well as the driving force to create a more peaceful world. Their energy and motivation can aid in finding new methods of coping with global hate and violence.

In your essay, you can use the following ideas to show the role of youth in creating a peaceful world:

• Analyze the key benefits of youth involvement in peacekeeping.
• Explain why young people are leading tomorrow’s change today.
• Identify the main ingredients for building a peaceful generation with the help of young people’s initiatives.
• Investigate how adolescent girls can be significant agents of positive change in their communities.

Is World Peace Possible Essay Prompt

Whether or not the world can be a peaceful place is one of the most controversial topics. While most people who hear the question “Is a world without war possible?” will probably answer “no,” others still believe in the goodness of humanity.

To discuss in your essay if world peace is possible, use the following ideas:

• Explain how trade, communication, and technology can promote cooperation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
• Analyze the role of international organizations like the United Nations and the European Union in maintaining peace in the world.
• Investigate how economic inequality poses a severe threat to peace and safety.
• Dwell on the key individual and national interests that can lead to conflict and competition between countries.

✔️ World Peace Topics for Essays

To help get you started with writing, here’s a list of 200 topics you can use for your future essTo help get you started with writing a world peace essay, we’ve prepared a list of topics you can use:

• Defining peace
• Why peace is better: benefits of living in harmony
• Is world peace attainable? Theory and historical examples
• Sustainable peace: is peace an intermission of war?
• Peaceful coexistence: how a society can do without wars
• Peaceful harmony or war of all against all: what came first?
• The relationship between economic development and peace
• Peace and Human Nature: Can Humans Live without Conflicts?
• Prerequisites for peace: what nations need to refrain from war?
• Peace as an unnatural phenomenon: why people tend to start a war?
• Peace as a natural phenomenon: why people avoid starting a war?
• Is peace the end of the war or its beginning?
• Hybrid war and hybrid peace
• What constitutes peace in the modern world
• Does two countries’ not attacking each other constitute peace?
• “Cold peace” in the international relations today
• What world religions say about world peace
• Defining peacemaking
• Internationally recognized symbols of peace
• World peace: a dream or a goal?

🌎 Peace Essay Topics on Pacifism

• History of pacifism: how the movement started and developed
• Role of the pacifist movement in the twentieth-century history
• Basic philosophical principles of pacifism
• Pacifism as philosophy and as a movement
• The peace sign: what it means
• How the pacifist movement began: actual causes
• The anti-war movements: what did the activists want?
• The relationship between pacifism and the sexual revolution
• Early pacifism: examples from ancient times
• Is pacifism a religion?
• Should pacifists refrain from any kinds of violence?
• Is the pacifist movement a threat to the national security?
• Can a pacifist work in law enforcement authorities?
• Pacifism and non-violence: comparing and contrasting
• The pacifist perspective on the concept of self-defense
• Pacifism in art: examples of pacifistic works of art
• Should everyone be a pacifist?
• Pacifism and diet: should every pacifist be a vegetarian?
• How pacifists respond to oppression
• The benefits of an active pacifist movement for a country

✌️ Interesting Essay Titles about Peace

• Can the country that won a war occupy the one that lost?
• The essential peace treaties in history
• Should a country that lost a war pay reparations?
• Peace treaties that caused new, more violent wars
• Can an aggressor country be deprived of the right to have an army after losing a war?
• Non-aggression pacts do not prevent wars
• All the countries should sign non-aggression pacts with one another
• Peace and truces: differences and similarities
• Do countries pursue world peace when signing peace treaties?
• The treaty of Versailles: positive and negative outcomes
• Ceasefires and surrenders: the world peace perspective
• When can a country break a peace treaty?
• Dealing with refugees and prisoners of war under peace treaties
• Who should resolve international conflicts?
• The role of the United Nations in enforcing peace treaties
• Truce envoys’ immunities
• What does a country do after surrendering unconditionally?
• A separate peace: the ethical perspective
• Can a peace treaty be signed in modern-day hybrid wars?
• Conditions that are unacceptable in a peace treaty

🕊️ Research Topics on Peace and Conflict Resolution

• Can people be forced to stop fighting?
• Successful examples of peace restoration through the use of force
• Failed attempts to restore peace with legitimate violence
• Conflict resolution vs conflict transformation
• What powers peacemakers should not have
• Preemptive peacemaking: can violence be used to prevent more abuse?
• The status of peacemakers in the international law
• Peacemaking techniques: Gandhi’s strategies
• How third parties can reconcile belligerents
• The role of the pacifist movement in peacemaking
• The war on wars: appropriate and inappropriate approaches to peacemaking
• Mistakes that peacemakers often stumble upon
• The extent of peacemaking : when the peacemakers’ job is done
• Making peace and sustaining it: how peacemakers prevent future conflicts
• The origins of peacemaking
• What to do if peacemaking does not work
• Staying out: can peacemaking make things worse?
• A personal reflection on the effectiveness of peacemaking
• Prospects of peacemaking
• Personal experience of peacemaking

💡 War and Peace Essay Topics

• Counties should stop producing new types of firearms
• Countries should not stop producing new types of weapons
• Mutual assured destruction as a means of sustaining peace
• The role of nuclear disarmament in world peace
• The nuclear war scenario: what will happen to the world?
• Does military intelligence contribute to sustaining peace?
• Collateral damage: analyzing the term
• Can the defenders of peace take up arms?
• For an armed person, is killing another armed person radically different from killing an unarmed one? Ethical and legal perspectives
• Should a healthy country have a strong army?
• Firearms should be banned
• Every citizen has the right to carry firearms
• The correlation between gun control and violence rates
• The second amendment: modern analysis
• Guns do not kill: people do
• What weapons a civilian should never be able to buy
• Biological and chemical weapons
• Words as a weapon: rhetoric wars
• Can a pacifist ever use a weapon?
• Can dropping weapons stop the war?

☮️ Peace Title Ideas for Essays

• How the nuclear disarmament emblem became the peace sign
• The symbolism of a dove with an olive branch
• Native Americans’ traditions of peace declaration
• The mushroom cloud as a cultural symbol
• What the world peace awareness ribbon should look like
• What I would like to be the international peace sign
• The history of the International Day of Peace
• The peace sign as an accessory
• The most famous peace demonstrations
• Hippies’ contributions to the peace symbolism
• Anti-war and anti-military symbols
• How to express pacifism as a political position
• The rainbow as a symbol of peace
• Can a white flag be considered a symbol of peace?
• Examples of the inappropriate use of the peace sign
• The historical connection between the peace sign and the cannabis leaf sign
• Peace symbols in different cultures
• Gods of war and gods of peace: examples from the ancient mythology
• Peace sign tattoo: pros and cons
• Should the peace sign be placed on a national flag?

🌐 Essay Topics about Peace Language

• The origin and historical context of the word “peace”
• What words foreign languages use to denote “peace”
• What words, if any, should a pacifist avoid?
• The pacifist discourse: key themes
• Disintegration language: “us” vs “them”
• How to combat war propaganda
• Does political correctness promote world peace?
• Can an advocate of peace be harsh in his or her speeches?
• Effective persuasive techniques in peace communications and negotiations
• Analyzing the term “world peace”
• If the word “war” is forbidden, will wars stop?
• Is “peacemaking” a right term?
• Talk to the hand: effective and ineffective interpersonal communication techniques that prevent conflicts
• The many meanings of the word “peace”
• The pacifists’ language: when pacifists swear, yell, or insult
• Stressing similarities instead of differences as a tool of peace language
• The portrayal of pacifists in movies
• The portrayals of pacifists in fiction
• Pacifist lyrics: examples from the s’ music
• Poems that supported peace The power of the written word
• Peaceful coexistence: theory and practice
• Under what conditions can humans coexist peacefully?
• “A man is a wolf to another man”: the modern perspective
• What factors prevent people from committing a crime?
• Right for peace vs need for peace
• Does the toughening of punishment reduce crime?
• The Stanford prison experiment: implications
• Is killing natural?
• The possibility of universal love: does disliking always lead to conflicts?
• Basic income and the dynamics of thefts
• Hobbesian Leviathan as the guarantee of peace
• Is state-concentrated legitimate violence an instrument for reducing violence overall?
• Factors that undermine peaceful coexistence
• Living in peace vs living for peace
• The relationship between otherness and peacefulness
• World peace and human nature: the issue of attainability
• The most successful examples of peaceful coexistence
• Lack of peace as lack of communication
• Point made: counterculture and pacifism
• What Woodstock proved to world peace nonbelievers and opponents?
• Woodstock and peaceful coexistence: challenges and successes
• Peace, economics, and quality of life
• Are counties living in peace wealthier? Statistics and reasons
• Profits of peace and profits of war: comparison of benefits and losses
• Can a war improve the economy? Discussing examples
• What is more important for people: having appropriate living conditions or winning a war?
• How wars can improve national economies: the perspective of aggressors and defenders
• Peace obstructers: examples of interest groups that sustained wars and prevented peace
• Can democracies be at war with one another?
• Does the democratic rule in a country provide it with an advantage at war?
• Why wars destroy economies: examples, discussion, and counterarguments
• How world peace would improve everyone’s quality of life
• Peace and war today
• Are we getting closer to world peace? Violence rates, values change, and historical comparison
• The peaceful tomorrow: how conflicts will be resolved in the future if there are no wars
• Redefining war: what specific characteristics today’s wars have that make them different from previous centuries’ wars
• Why wars start today: comparing and contrasting the reasons for wars in the modern world to historical examples
• Subtle wars: how two countries can be at war with each other without having their armies collide in the battlefield
• Cyber peace: how cyberwars can be stopped
• Information as a weapon: how information today lands harder blows than bombs and missiles
• Information wars: how the abundance of information and public access to it have not, nonetheless, eliminated propaganda
• Peace through defeating: how ISIS is different from other states, and how can its violence be stopped
• Is world peace a popular idea? Do modern people mostly want peace or mainly wish to fight against other people and win?
• Personal contributions to world peace
• What can I do for attaining world peace? Personal reflection
• Respect as a means of attaining peace: why respecting people is essential not only on the level of interpersonal communications but also on the level of social good
• Peacefulness as an attitude: how one’s worldview can prevent conflicts
• Why a person engages in insulting and offending: analysis of psychological causes and a personal perspective
• A smile as an agent of peace: how simple smiling to people around you contributes to peacefulness
• Appreciating otherness: how one can learn to value diversity and avoid xenophobia
• Peace and love: how the two are inherently interconnected in everyone’s life
• A micro-level peacemaker: my experiences of resolving conflicts and bringing peace
• Forgiveness for the sake of peace: does forgiving other people contribute to peaceful coexistence or promote further conflicts?
• Noble lies: is it acceptable for a person to lie to avoid conflicts and preserve peace?
• What should a victim do? Violent and non-violent responses to violence
• Standing up for the weak : is it always right to take the side of the weakest?
• Self-defense, overwhelming emotions, and witnessing horrible violence: could I ever shoot another person?
• Are there “fair” wars, and should every war be opposed?
• Protecting peace: could I take up arms to prevent a devastating war?
• Reporting violence: would I participate in sending a criminal to prison?
• The acceptability of violence against perpetrators: personal opinion
• Nonviolent individual resistance to injustice
• Peace is worth it: why I think wars are never justified
• How I sustain peace in my everyday life

Learn more on this topic:

• If I Could Change the World Essay: Examples and Writing Guide
• Ending the Essay: Conclusions
• Choosing and Narrowing a Topic to Write About
• Introduction to Research
• How the U.S. Can Help Humanity Achieve World Peace
• Ten Steps to World Peace
• How World Peace is Possible
• World Peace Books and Articles
• World Peace and Nonviolence
• The Leader of World Peace Essay
• UNO and World Peace Essay
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A very, very good paragraph. thanks

Peace and conflict studies actually is good field because is dealing on how to manage the conflict among the two state or country.

Keep it up. Our world earnestly needs peace

A very, very good paragraph.

Tips on how to Create a Perfect Essay on World Peace

You are probably here because you do not know what to write in your world peace essay. Well, your visit was predetermined, and it is the very reason we have this guide on how to write a world peace essay.

To start us off, we can agree that world peace is among the most debated topics. Although achieving absolute world peace is a challenge, various stakeholders have fronted diverse efforts.

It is a great honor for a student to write a world peace essay finally. Although general a topic, it is always a chance to remind the audience that peace is not the absence of war and that there is more to it.

As such, whether it comes out as a synthesis, argumentative, persuasive, narrative, or descriptive essay, you must ensure that it is a creative piece of writing.

Now, let us go on a discovery journey for helpful tips and ideas on how to create a winning world peace essay.

Steps to Writing an Outstanding World Peace Essay

1. study the world peace essay prompt and rubric..

The requirements for writing creative essays differ from college to college and from professor to professor. Therefore, instead of assuming, as most students do, concentrate on the rubric and the essay prompt. These documentations help you understand the formatting style for your essay, whether it is to be submitted in MLA, APA, or Chicago. They also entail information on the list of potential topics. Most importantly, they also guide you on the expected word count for the essay. Therefore, instead of asking whether a world peace essay is a 500-word or 1000-word essay , the rubric can help.

2. Pick a topic that interests you.

Although we have said this almost in every guide we have written, we emphasize its importance as it aids in writing an essay that gets you communicating with the audience (the marker). Think about a topic in the news, peace in a given country, or draw from your experience. Sometimes, even a movie can be the genesis of a world peace topic. Be whatever it may, ensure that you choose a topic you are comfortable to spend hours researching, writing, and reading about.

3. Research and choose credible sources.

The hallmark of writing an excellent essay is doing research. A well-researched and organized essay tickles grades even from the strict professor. The secret of creating a winning peace essay lies in the depth and scope of your research. With the internet awash with sources, choosing credible scholarly sources can define an A+ peace essay from a failing one. Now, as you research, you will develop insights into your chosen topic, generate ideas, and find facts to support your arguments. Instead of just plain or flat paper, proper research will birth a critical world peace essay. By critical, you will consider the models of peace, theories of peace, some treaties and global laws/legislations, and the process of peace where necessary.

4. Create a detailed outline.

One of the most straightforward strategies to write an essay fast is to have an outline for the essay. The outline offers you a structure and guide when you finally start writing the essay on world peace. Like a roadmap to the best world peace essay, the outline entails the skeleton of what you will fill to make the first draft. An excellent outline makes you logically organize your essay. Thus, skipping this step is disastrous to your grade pursuit.

5. Write the rough draft.

The first draft is a bouncing baby of the essay outline. To complete the first draft, fill in the spaces in your outline. With the essay hook, background, and thesis in the introduction, it is now a great time to polish up the introduction to make it outstanding. Besides, with the topic sentences and main points for each paragraph identified in the outline, when writing the first draft, it is your turn to support each paragraph with facts from the resources identified in the research phase. As this is your first draft, do not focus much on grammar and other stylistic and methodological essay writing errors: leave those for the next phase, proofreading.

6. Proofread the rough draft and turn it into a final draft.

Proofreading is as important as writing an essay. You cannot skin an entire cow and eat it whole. Now, with the analogy, proofreading helps dissect the essay. It helps you identify the grammar and stylistic errors as well as logical essay mistakes and weed them out. When proofreading, always endeavor to make every page count by making it perfect. If you are not as confident with your proofreading skills, try using software such as RefWorks (to check correctness and consistency of citations) and Grammarly or Ginger Software to check your grammar. You can also use plagiarism checkers to identify some areas with similarities and paraphrase further. If you feel all this is too much work, especially given you have written for hours, you can hire an editor to correct your essay .

Interesting World Peace Essay Topics to Write About

• The role of diplomacy in achieving world peace.
• The impact of economic development on global peace.
• The influence of cultural exchange on international peace efforts.
• The role of the United Nations in promoting world peace.
• How nuclear disarmament contributes to global peace.
• The effect of global trade agreements on world peace.
• The role of education in fostering a culture of peace.
• How environmental sustainability can contribute to world peace.
• The impact of international law on global peacekeeping.
• The relationship between human rights and world peace.
• The role of peace education in conflict resolution.
• The influence of religion on global peace efforts.
• The impact of media on the promotion of world peace.
• How social justice initiatives contribute to global peace.
• The role of women in promoting and sustaining world peace.
• The effect of terrorism on global peace.
• The role of non-governmental organizations in fostering world peace.
• The influence of global leadership on international peace efforts.
• How poverty alleviation can contribute to world peace.
• The impact of immigration policies on global peace.
• The role of youth in promoting world peace.
• How technological advancements can promote or hinder world peace.
• The effect of arms control agreements on global peace.
• The relationship between mental health and world peace.
• The impact of climate change on global peace and security.
• The role of international organizations in conflict prevention.
• How economic inequality affects global peace.
• The influence of cultural diversity on world peace.
• The role of humanitarian aid in promoting global peace.
• The impact of colonial history on current global peace efforts.
• The effect of global health initiatives on world peace.
• The relationship between gender equality and global peace.
• The role of conflict resolution strategies in achieving world peace.
• The influence of political stability on global peace.
• The impact of global communication networks on world peace.
• How international cooperation can foster world peace.
• The role of ethical leadership in promoting global peace.
• The effect of sanctions on global peace efforts.
• The impact of global financial systems on world peace.
• The influence of regional alliances on international peace efforts.
• The role of peace treaties in maintaining world peace.
• How global education standards can contribute to world peace.
• The effect of international migration on global peace.
• The relationship between democracy and world peace.
• The impact of global public health initiatives on world peace.
• The role of grassroots movements in promoting world peace.
• The influence of social media on global peace efforts.
• How international sports events can promote world peace.
• The impact of global governance on world peace.
• The effect of international peacekeeping missions on global peace.
• The role of conflict mediation in achieving world peace.
• The influence of art and culture on global peace.
• The impact of international humanitarian law on world peace.
• The role of global citizenship in promoting world peace.
• The effect of economic sanctions on global peace.
• The impact of international relations theories on global peace efforts.
• The influence of global education campaigns on world peace.
• The role of non-violent resistance in achieving world peace.
• The impact of digital diplomacy on global peace efforts.
• The effect of peacebuilding initiatives on post-conflict societies.
• The role of global economic institutions in promoting world peace.
• The influence of historical memory on current global peace efforts.
• The impact of social media on the perception of global peace.
• The effect of international development aid on world peace.
• The role of global partnerships in achieving world peace.
• The influence of music and literature on global peace efforts.
• The impact of cross-cultural communication on world peace.
• The effect of international refugee policies on global peace.
• The role of global financial stability in promoting world peace.
• The influence of international humanitarian interventions on global peace.
• The impact of global inequality on world peace.
• The effect of international environmental policies on global peace.
• The role of intercultural dialogue in promoting world peace.
• The influence of international human rights organizations on global peace.
• The impact of peace journalism on world peace.
• The effect of global health crises on international peace efforts.
• The role of international peace conferences in promoting world peace.
• The influence of global technological innovation on world peace.
• The impact of international trade disputes on global peace.
• The effect of global labor rights on world peace.
• The role of international academic exchange in promoting world peace.
• The influence of global media coverage on international peace efforts.
• The impact of global population growth on world peace.
• The effect of international economic cooperation on global peace.
• The role of peace studies programs in fostering a culture of peace.
• The influence of international conflict resolution models on global peace.
• The impact of global food security on world peace.
• The effect of international sanctions on global peacekeeping efforts.
• The role of global cultural heritage preservation in promoting world peace.
• The influence of international volunteerism on global peace efforts.
• The impact of global water security on world peace.
• The effect of international environmental agreements on global peace.
• The role of global social movements in promoting world peace.
• The influence of international youth organizations on global peace efforts.
• The impact of global economic crises on world peace.
• The effect of international migration trends on global peace.
• The role of global education reform in promoting world peace.
• The influence of international tourism on global peace efforts.
• The impact of global technological disruptions on world peace.
• The effect of international legal frameworks on global peace.
• The importance of world peace treaties.
• The significance of International Peace Day.
• Is peace the absence of war?
• Defining peace.
• Benefits of living in peace.
• Is global peace attainable?
• Can peace, like war, be human-made?
• Can humans and nature live without conflicts?
• Distinguishing hybrid war and hybrid peace.
• Defining peace in contemporary society.
• The role of community policing in maintaining peace within the community.
• The role of criminal justice and law enforcement systems in peace management.
• Is world peace a dream or an attainable phenomenon?
• The process of peacemaking.
• The role of mediation in the political peacemaking process.
• Peace in South Sudan.
• Peace in Iraq.
• Impediments to peace between Israel and Palestine.
• The role of political leaders in creating peace.
• The role of peacekeepers in maintaining peace.
• Could Free Hugs Day make the world peaceful?
• Can ceasefires bring peace?
• Causes of lack of peace.
• Why people should always give peace a chance.
• Human rights and freedoms in the context of world peace.
• Strategies to prevent the telltale signs of war.
• The role of the United Nations in global peace.
• Solving conflicts between humans and animals.
• The importance of national peace.
• Terrorism as a threat to world peace.
• The stance of Mahatma Gandhi on peace.
• How poverty and hunger combine as barriers to a world truce.
• The role of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama in world peace.
• The relationship between peace and freedom.
• Humanitarian interventions as a means of achieving peace.
• Can religion be the genesis of peace in the world?
• Factors limiting peace in countries at war.
• Is it possible to intervene between two warring countries?
• The origins of peacekeeping.
• Does the peacemaking process work?
• Conflict transformation versus conflict resolution.
• Does a peaceful world mean a peaceful world?
• Techniques for peacekeeping.
• International law and peacemakers.
• Prospects of peacemaking.
• How the sale of weapons affects world peace.
• Military intelligence and peace.
• The impacts of technological development on global peace.
• The role of social media in promoting world peace.
• Nuclear disarmament and world peace.
• Is it worth being a superpower and funding wars in other areas?
• Imagine a world without weapons—what would it be like?
• The most peaceful city in the world.
• Does peace have its roots in culture?
• The impacts of cultural beliefs on world peace.
• The link between peace and development.
• Is the rainbow a sign of peace?
• The pros and cons of having a peace sign tattoo.
• The role of street art and graffiti in global peace.
• Can art be used to rally support for global peace?
• The place of leaders in achieving global peace.
• Peace declarations and traditions of Native Americans.
• The dove with an olive branch as a symbol of peace.
• Why flags should unite a nation.
• Nationalism, patriotism, and national peace.
• Political correctness and global peace.
• Communication and negotiation as key skills for attaining peace.
• Pacifist nations and their influence on global peace.
• "Us versus them" as a genesis of war.
• Pacifist representation in movies.
• The implications of the Stanford Prison Experiment.
• Counterculture and pacifism.
• The profits of peace.
• The impact of the Cold War between China and the United States on world peace.
• Why the UAE remains peaceful and developed.
• The role of the United States, UK, and Russia in world peace.
• Has globalization worsened or created a peaceful world?
• How individuals can contribute to world peace.
• The role of peace in the development of Rwanda.
• Lessons on peace the world can learn from the Rwandan Genocide.
• Creating a peaceful society through cyber peace.
• How to convince ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups to embrace peace.
• Peace in Syria.
• The future of peace in a world full of individualism.
• How social skills can help inspire peace.
• Architecture as an expression of peace.
• Pacifist representation in fiction.
• Pacifist lyrics in music.
• Can music be used to create world peace?
• How global peace awards can inspire peace.
• The role of the Nobel Prize for Peace in promoting global peace.
• Why a peaceful world depends on a peaceful community.
• The role of Interpol in maintaining world peace.
• Interprofessional collaboration to achieve world peace.
• How learning different languages can promote peace.
• Can interracial marriages bring peace to the world?
• The importance of teaching children about peace from a young age.
• The role of the Catholic Church in attaining world peace.
• The role of Oman as a regional mediator in the Middle East.
• The future of peace in Yemen.

Related Posts:

• How to write a perfect descriptive essay.
• How to write an argumentative essay. 
• Tips for writing a discursive essay.
• Tips for essays on poverty.
• Writing a great essay on the death penalty.

Even with the world peace essay topics at your disposal, it is possible to face challenges with writing. All these topics on world peace are only great if you know how to write papers. GradeCrest has essay writers for hire who are ready to help you with creating great essays from scratch. If you feel like you need a hand because you have been struggling with writing, place an order, and we will help you. Go to our home page and fill out the order form to get instant help.

Gradecrest is a professional writing service that provides original model papers. We offer personalized services along with research materials for assistance purposes only. All the materials from our website should be used with proper references. See our Terms of Use Page for proper details.

December 2, 2021

Peace Is More Than War’s Absence, and New Research Explains How to Build It

A new project measures ways to promote positive social relations among groups

By Peter T. Coleman , Allegra Chen-Carrel & Vincent Hans Michael Stueber

PeopleImages/Getty Images

Today, the misery of war is all too striking in places such as Syria, Yemen, Tigray, Myanmar and Ukraine. It can come as a surprise to learn that there are scores of sustainably peaceful societies around the world, ranging from indigenous people in the Xingu River Basin in Brazil to countries in the European Union. Learning from these societies, and identifying key drivers of harmony, is a vital process that can help promote world peace.

Unfortunately, our current ability to find these peaceful mechanisms is woefully inadequate. The Global Peace Index (GPI) and its complement the Positive Peace Index (PPI) rank 163 nations annually and are currently the leading measures of peacefulness. The GPI, launched in 2007 by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), was designed to measure negative peace , or the absence of violence, destructive conflict, and war. But peace is more than not fighting. The PPI, launched in 2009, was supposed to recognize this and track positive peace , or the promotion of peacefulness through positive interactions like civility, cooperation and care.

Yet the PPI still has many serious drawbacks. To begin with, it continues to emphasize negative peace, despite its name. The components of the PPI were selected and are weighted based on existing national indicators that showed the “strongest correlation with the GPI,” suggesting they are in effect mostly an extension of the GPI. For example, the PPI currently includes measures of factors such as group grievances, dissemination of false information, hostility to foreigners, and bribes.

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The index also lacks an empirical understanding of positive peace. The PPI report claims that it focuses on “positive aspects that create the conditions for a society to flourish.” However, there is little indication of how these aspects were derived (other than their relationships with the GPI). For example, access to the internet is currently a heavily weighted indicator in the PPI. But peace existed long before the internet, so is the number of people who can go online really a valid measure of harmony?

The PPI has a strong probusiness bias, too. Its 2021 report posits that positive peace “is a cross-cutting facilitator of progress, making it easier for businesses to sell.” A prior analysis of the PPI found that almost half the indicators were directly related to the idea of a “Peace Industry,” with less of a focus on factors found to be central to positive peace such as gender inclusiveness, equity and harmony between identity groups.

A big problem is that the index is limited to a top-down, national-level approach. The PPI’s reliance on national-level metrics masks critical differences in community-level peacefulness within nations, and these provide a much more nuanced picture of societal peace . Aggregating peace data at the national level, such as focusing on overall levels of inequality rather than on disparities along specific group divides, can hide negative repercussions of the status quo for minority communities.

To fix these deficiencies, we and our colleagues have been developing an alternative approach under the umbrella of the Sustaining Peace Project . Our effort has various components , and these can provide a way to solve the problems in the current indices. Here are some of the elements:

Evidence-based factors that measure positive and negative peace. The peace project began with a comprehensive review of the empirical studies on peaceful societies, which resulted in identifying 72 variables associated with sustaining peace. Next, we conducted an analysis of ethnographic and case study data comparing “peace systems,” or clusters of societies that maintain peace with one another, with nonpeace systems. This allowed us to identify and measure a set of eight core drivers of peace. These include the prevalence of an overarching social identity among neighboring groups and societies; their interconnections such as through trade or intermarriage; the degree to which they are interdependent upon one another in terms of ecological, economic or security concerns; the extent to which their norms and core values support peace or war; the role that rituals, symbols and ceremonies play in either uniting or dividing societies; the degree to which superordinate institutions exist that span neighboring communities; whether intergroup mechanisms for conflict management and resolution exist; and the presence of political leadership for peace versus war.

A core theory of sustaining peace . We have also worked with a broad group of peace, conflict and sustainability scholars to conceptualize how these many variables operate as a complex system by mapping their relationships in a causal loop diagram and then mathematically modeling their core dynamics This has allowed us to gain a comprehensive understanding of how different constellations of factors can combine to affect the probabilities of sustaining peace.

Bottom-up and top-down assessments . Currently, the Sustaining Peace Project is applying techniques such as natural language processing and machine learning to study markers of peace and conflict speech in the news media. Our preliminary research suggests that linguistic features may be able to distinguish between more and less peaceful societies. These methods offer the potential for new metrics that can be used for more granular analyses than national surveys.

We have also been working with local researchers from peaceful societies to conduct interviews and focus groups to better understand the in situ dynamics they believe contribute to sustaining peace in their communities. For example in Mauritius , a highly multiethnic society that is today one of the most peaceful nations in Africa, we learned of the particular importance of factors like formally addressing legacies of slavery and indentured servitude, taboos against proselytizing outsiders about one’s religion, and conscious efforts by journalists to avoid divisive and inflammatory language in their reporting.

Today, global indices drive funding and program decisions that impact countless lives, making it critical to accurately measure what contributes to socially just, safe and thriving societies. These indices are widely reported in news outlets around the globe, and heads of state often reference them for their own purposes. For example, in 2017 , Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, though he and his country were mired in corruption allegations, referenced his country’s positive increase on the GPI by stating, “Receiving such high praise from an institute that once named this country the most violent in the world is extremely significant.” Although a 2019 report on funding for peace-related projects shows an encouraging shift towards supporting positive peace and building resilient societies, many of these projects are really more about preventing harm, such as grants for bolstering national security and enhancing the rule of law.

The Sustaining Peace Project, in contrast, includes metrics for both positive and negative peace, is enhanced by local community expertise, and is conceptually coherent and based on empirical findings. It encourages policy makers and researchers to refocus attention and resources on initiatives that actually promote harmony, social health and positive reciprocity between groups. It moves away from indices that rank entire countries and instead focuses on identifying factors that, through their interaction, bolster or reduce the likelihood of sustaining peace. It is a holistic perspective.  

Tracking peacefulness across the globe is a highly challenging endeavor. But there is great potential in cooperation between peaceful communities, researchers and policy makers to produce better methods and metrics. Measuring peace is simply too important to get only half-right. 

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Argument: The Realist Guide to World Peace

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The Realist Guide to World Peace

You don’t have to be an idealist to want to put an end to war..

• Stephen M. Walt

It’s the holiday season, that brief period each year when we are encouraged to think about peace. Warring armies sometimes declare cease-fires at this time, and around the world different communities of faith are told that pursuing and preserving peace is a sacred duty. If we are fortunate, most of us will spend some part of the next few days enjoying the company of friends and family and trying to put humanity’s crueler instincts to the side, at least for the moment.

Let’s be honest: 2022 was not a good year for peace. In addition to a brutal and senseless war in Ukraine—a war that shows no signs of ending and could still get much worse—violent conflicts are still underway in Yemen, Myanmar, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Syria, and many other places. Although U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping managed a fairly cordial meeting at the G-20 summit in Bali in November, the two most powerful countries in the world remain divided on a host of important issues. Given the state of the world and the United States’ desire to remain the leading global power, it should surprise no one that the Senate just voted an 8 percent increase in the U.S. defense budget. Even formerly pacifist-leaning countries such as Germany and Japan took dramatic steps to rearm during 2022.

For a realist like me, these developments aren’t surprising. Realism’s central lesson is that in a world of independent countries without a central authority, the ever-present possibility of war casts a shadow over much of what states do. Because warfare is inherently destructive and often uncertain, realists tend to be wary of idealistic crusades and mindful of the danger of threatening what others regard—justifiably or not—as vital interests. Instead, realists of all stripes emphasize the tragic features of a world in which leaders are easily misled by poor information or their own delusions, where even noble aims can produce regrettable results.

But neither realists nor their critics can simply throw up their hands and declare there is nothing to be done about the possibility of serious conflict. War between and within states may be a constant danger, but the real challenge is to devise and implement policies that will minimize the risks of new wars and help bring existing ones to an end. Because the benefits of peace and the costs and risks of war have never been greater, this imperative may be more urgent today than at any time in human history.

First, the benefits. Many people believe economic interdependence promotes peace both between and within countries, an idea that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts doubt upon. The reverse is more likely to be true: Peace makes interdependence more feasible and allows us to enjoy the benefits of economic exchange at lower risk. When the danger of war declines, investors can safely send capital to other countries; governments can worry less about whether their trading partners are gaining a bit more from the exchange; states can welcome foreign visitors and students without concern that rivals will be acquiring knowledge that might be used to harm them; elaborate supply chains are less risky; and everyone can pursue joint gains instead of constantly striving for relative advantage. The absence of serious rivalry among the major powers facilitated the recent era of globalization, producing enormous benefits for mankind despite its deficiencies. And when war is off the table, societies can be more open to exchanging ideas and lessons from cultures that are different from their own.

Next, the costs and risks. Foremost among them, of course, is the human and economic price tag. Nearly 200,000 Ukrainians and Russians may have been killed or wounded since that war began, and millions of refugees have fled. The economic costs on Ukraine have been frightful, Russia’s own economy is in decline, and the war has exacerbated economic problems and food shortages in many other countries. Similarly, the civil war (and Saudi Arabia’s intervention) in Yemen has killed nearly 400,000 people and devastated an already poor country, while civil conflicts in Africa and Latin America continue to immiserate these regions and drive outward migration.

But the direct costs of conflict are just part of the price. As competition between states intensifies and the risks of war go up, the ability to cooperate even on matters of mutual interest goes down. Humanity faces a host of daunting problems today, including climate change, pandemic disease, and rising refugee flows. None of them will be easy to solve and all of them are arguably of greater importance than who ends up governing Crimea, Taiwan, or Nagorno-Karabakh. The more nations fight, or the more time and effort and money they devote to preparing for war, the harder it will be to address these other problems.

There is also the unavoidable risk that a war will escalate or expand. States are invariably tempted to do more to try to achieve victory (or avoid defeat), and third parties often become more deeply involved either be deliberate decision or through inadvertence. Needless to say, such dangers are especially worrisome if a state with nuclear weapons is involved. Nuclear escalation may still be extremely unlikely, but it would be foolhardy to discount the possibility entirely. That’s not an argument for pacifism, but it is a powerful reason to prefer peace to war.

It’s tempting to blame the elusiveness of peace on the arrogance and folly of individual autocrats, and lord knows there’s no shortage of either of those qualities this year. Russian President Vladimir Putin may have had legitimate reasons to worry about NATO enlargement and its impact on Russia’s security, but his “solution” to those concerns has caused thousands of innocent deaths and vast human suffering and will leave Russia neither stronger nor safer. One could say the same for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s intervention in Yemen or the brutal crackdowns imposed by the regime in Iran and the military junta in Myanmar. But before you conclude that dictatorship is the problem, remember powerful democracies sometimes succumb to the same dangerous combination of paranoia and hubris, as former U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and their minions showed back in 2003.

I don’t have a formula for permanent peace up my sleeve, alas, but I do have an observation. A striking feature of most recent wars is how frequently they seem to backfire on the countries who start them. The days where major powers could start a big war and make dramatic strategic gains—as Japan did against Russia in 1905 or Bismarck’s Prussia did in the wars of German unification—seem to be behind us. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein attacked Iran and invaded Kuwait and lost big both times. The United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and ended up in costly quagmires, and its intervention in Libya in 2011 produced a failed state. Israel’s intervention in Lebanon led to an 18-year occupation, one that ended no better than the United States’ long effort in Afghanistan. Serbia’s assault on Kosovo eventually led to Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic’s indictment as a war criminal and removal from power. Indeed, there don’t seem to be many recent examples of a decision to start a war paying off handsomely for the responsible party. Ethiopia’s campaign against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front may have ended with a peace agreement that favored the government, for example, but the war tarnished Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s once-glittering reputation significantly.

I could go on, but you get the idea. The fact that starting wars rarely pays tells us something important about the modern world: a combination of nationalism, rapid diplomatic communications, a flourishing international arms market that can fuel resistance movements, an imperfect but widely accepted norm against conquest, the sobering effects of nuclear weapons, and the powerful tendency for states to balance against manifest threats may have combined to make most offensive wars a dubious proposition for the initiator. This fact hasn’t ended international competition—far from it—but there seem to be real limits to what even powerful states can accomplish by launching a war.

So, my holiday message to every world leader is this: By all means, maintain defense forces that can protect your territory if you happen to be attacked or that can help a key ally if something similar happens to them. At the same time, ask yourself if your own foreign and national security policies might be unwittingly encroaching on another state’s vital interests. If they are, consider whether there is something you could do to mitigate the problem without leaving your own country vulnerable. Explore that possibility with them sincerely and openly—it just might work.

Most important of all: If one of your advisors starts trying to convince you that you can solve some political problem by starting a war, and if they tell you that conditions are optimal, the stars are lining up, the time is right, the costs will be low, the risks are small, and the time to act is now, thank them politely for their advice and immediately seek a second opinion. While you’re at it, spend some time thinking about all the former leaders who went to war confident of victory, and who would have been better off to have chosen peace instead.

Postscript : I wrote this column thinking of my late friend Sid Topol, who passed away last March at the age of 97. Sid was a remarkable man who repeatedly challenged me (and many others) to make peace a greater priority in our work. Inspired by his example, I decided a few years ago to devote at least one column each year to the subject of peace. This year, I do so to honor his memory.

Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. X:  @stephenwalt

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• How To Create A World Peace Essay
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What to Write in a World Peace Essay

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It would be great if everyone had a will to write how to achieve world peace essays without any impact from external forces like a school teacher or a college professor. No matter what your motivation was to create such a paper, we're here to help you write it. There are lots of thoughts on this topic, and this text will highlight some of them that look like the most effective ones. Prepare for saving the world! Or do it together with us – just say, " Someone write my essay !"

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Grown-up individuals tend to transfer the responsibility for their lives to parents, family, partners, friends, bosses, governments, extraterrestrial and supernatural powers. In the best case, the other people cannot know how you want to live your life. They make decisions concerning your life from their point of view and often bring you only disappointment. It leads to your anger and frustration, which you translate to other people, which evokes the same feelings in them. And this becomes an avalanche of discontent, hatred, and aggression.

Moreover, sometimes people use your indifference to decision-making to satisfy their goals, which sometimes are evil and even inhumane. And this causes wars. Want to stop it? Begin with yourself: take control of your life and be responsible for your decisions. It is a 100% guarantee of coming closer to world peace.

Actually, people know everything about reaching peace for many years. The problem is that not everyone wants to implement it. The main reason here is the absence of trust between people in general and (mostly!) decision-makers in particular.

We are afraid of being fooled in real-life situations for no logical reason, as this encourages general distrust. We will not stop relations with the other people but are suspicious towards them at first sight. It also leads to this avalanche effect.

Maintaining this status quo doesn't create a positive atmosphere. Though it is hard and takes much time, we need to trust as many other people as possible to make faith a new institution. Then politicians would hesitate to begin war operations way more.

Escape from hurry and fuss with any possibility to open the world in its beauty. Share these emotions with folks, random people in coffee shops, colleagues at work, and so on. Make other people think that enjoying life is not a household appliances brand's motto but a regular and preferable person's choice.

It could reduce the level of negative emotions that often convert to violence and aggression. Violence at houses and on the streets contributes to the legitimation of wars as the society tolerates these methods.

Accept human beings the way they are because differences make us fight each other while similarities lead to a peaceful world. You should not discriminate against a human by race, religion, and/or else. Learn to forgive people for breaking the vicious circle of transferring adverse attitudes.

It is critical to respect every living creature. Entire nations can easily find everyday speech with each other with words of respect and love, and you can explain the best terms to do that. It is quite a good idea for how to achieve world peace essay.

To avoid wars globally and in a particular country, it is also essential to battle against and not tolerate the violence; never support politicians & activists that provoke or promote war. Once again: wars destroy our Earth and life on it!

Knowing the major arguments for writing how to achieve world peace essays may not be enough to create an excellent paper. That is why we propose you get an acquaintance with the following advice to make creative essay writing :

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• Ways to prevent the destruction of one country by other nations.
• Changing the future of the planet with the help of peace movements.
• The role the United Nations plays in peace movements around the globe.

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Students have a wide range of topics to discuss when writing a social media essay. This article will tell you about this tricky essay type and offer the most valuable topics to consider. Our experts have gathered many exciting and useful tips that will help you craft a killer essay on social media. ...

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Article Contents

Introduction, the perennial problem of speaking about peace, the obligation to write about war, traditions of international thinking, funder information.

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What Do We Learn about War and Peace from Women International Thinkers?

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Glenda Sluga, What Do We Learn about War and Peace from Women International Thinkers?, Global Studies Quarterly , Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2023, ksad018, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksad018

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The aim of this essay is to ask what can we learn about war and peace from women international thinkers? As I will show, new and old historical evidence of women thinkers points us in directions that suggest, first, the privations women regularly faced in order to make their arguments against the background of actual war, addressing both the more conventional “women's” topic of peace and the often masculinized controversies of the nature of violence. This same history sounds out the range and changing (gendered) registers of international thought, including the diminished tones of peace as a defining objective. Then there are the diverse locations of specifically women's international thought, from manifestos to pamphlets and newspaper articles to published tomes. These lead us to the intersecting political and intellectual networks of activism and influence that colored the intertextual referentiality that thinking generated. Finally, I will argue that the evidence at hand, and the related examples it connects to, underscores the broad transnational European settings of the texts that specifically address war and peace. It even suggests, as I suggest, that the borders of that transnationalism extended not only across the Atlantic, but also through the entangled continental political histories of Western Europe and Russia. In the twenty-first century, these contours of the history of women's international thought remain relevant, not least because they pose the question for us, what difference have women thinkers made?

Cet article traite de la question suivante: que peut-on apprendre sur la guerre et la paix grâce aux penseuses internationales ? Je montrerai que les nouvelles données issues des penseuses, mais aussi les plus anciennes et historiques, révèlent d'abord les privations auxquelles ont été régulièrement confrontées les femmes quand il s'agissait de présenter leurs idées en temps de guerre. Elles rejoignent le sujet « féminin » plus habituel de paix et les polémiques souvent masculinisées autour de la nature de la violence. Cette même histoire nous donne une idée de l'ampleur et de l’évolution des registres (genrés) de la pensée internationale, notamment la perte de vitesse de la présentation de la paix comme objectif ultime. Ensuite, la pensée internationale spécifiquement féminine s'exprime sur différents supports, des manifestes aux volumes publiés en passant par les pamphlets et articles de journal. Nous constatons ainsi l'intersection des réseaux politiques et intellectuels de militantisme et d'influence qui ont faussé l'intertextualité et la référentialité générées par cette pensée. Enfin, je soutiendrai que les données à disposition, et les exemples connexes, soulignent le large cadre européen transnational des textes qui traitent précisément de la guerre et de la paix. Elles indiquent aussi, comme je le montrerai, que les frontières de ce transnationalisme non seulement s’étendaient par-delà l'Atlantique, mais traversaient aussi l'enchevêtrement des théories politiques continentales de l'Europe occidentale et de la Russie. Au 21e siècle, ces contours de l'histoire de la pensée internationale des femmes conservent toute leur pertinence, notamment parce qu'ils s'interrogent sur l'importance du rôle des penseuses.

El objetivo de este artículo es hacernos la siguiente pregunta, ¿qué podemos aprender de las mujeres pensadoras internacionales acerca de la guerra y de la paz? Como demostraremos, tanto la nueva como la antigua evidencia histórica de las mujeres pensadoras nos indican direcciones que sugieren, en primer lugar, las privaciones a las que las mujeres se enfrentaron regularmente para poder presentar sus alegatos contra el contexto de la guerra real, abordando, o bien el tema más convencional de la paz «de las mujeres», o bien las controversias, a menudo masculinizadas, de la naturaleza de la violencia. Esta misma historia tantea tanto el rango como los registros cambiantes (de género) del pensamiento internacional, incluyendo los reducidos matices de la paz como objetivo definitorio. También podemos encontrar los diversos lugares del pensamiento internacional específicamente femenino, desde manifiestos a panfletos y desde artículos periodísticos hasta tomos publicados. Estos nos dirigen a las redes políticas e intelectuales entrecruzadas de activismo e influencia y que dieron color a la referencialidad intertextual que generaba el pensamiento. Por último, argumentaremos que la evidencia disponible, así como los ejemplos relacionados con los que se conecta esta evidencia, recalcan la amplia configuración europea transnacional de los textos que abordan específicamente la guerra y la paz. Esto incluso nos indica, tal como sugerimos, que las fronteras de ese transnacionalismo se extendieron no solo a través del Atlántico, sino a través de las enredadas historias políticas continentales de Europa Occidental y de Rusia. En el siglo XXI, estos perfiles de la historia del pensamiento internacional de las mujeres siguen siendo relevantes, entre otras razones porque nos plantean la siguiente pregunta, ¿cuál es el diferencial que han aportado las mujeres pensadoras?

Through the twentieth century, women have been “at the forefront of geopolitical thinking”; they have written “powerful analyses of war, the organized, reciprocal killing and maiming of people and destruction of things.” And yet, women have been “completely absent from the academic canon of international thought” ( Owens et al. 2022 , 2; Owens and Rietzler 2021 ). 1 This is the paradoxical intellectual setting of Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler, Kimberley Hutchings, and Sarah C. Dunstan's Women's International Thought: Towards a New Canon , an anthology that assembles texts by women on the canonical themes of international politics since 1899: imperialism, anticolonialism, world economy, diplomacy, and foreign policy. Many of the women whose voices come through might be well known to feminist historians, even if they have not been read conventionally through the lens of “international thought”—as intellectual historians acknowledge, the field of international thought is (surprisingly) relatively new ( Armitage 2015 , 116–30; Sluga 2015 , 103–15; Huber, Pietsch, and Rietzler 2021 , 121–45). Even as Women's International Thought revolves around (mostly) Western European and trans-Atlantic examples, its enterprise is indicative of the historical breadth and diversity of the fabric of women's international thinking, textured by the warp and weft of its multivocality and inevitably dissonant tendencies. My aim in this essay is to make use of the anthology and these representative strengths to pose a specific historical question: what do we learn about war and peace from women international thinkers ?

In broaching this question by drawing on this anthology, I have preferred to frame women's international texts as manifestations of thinking , a potentially more generous concept than thought in its canonical accommodations. By emphasizing thinking , my intention is not unlike that of the anthology's editors, namely to draw attention to the same “multiple power relations” that have determined the canon of international thought so far and to expand, and possibly even challenge that canon, by incorporating an even wider spectrum of views on war and peace. In practical terms, the preference for thinking over thought allows me to capitalize on the anthology's own approach to its textual landscape, to incorporate a range of genres: manifestos, pamphlets, and newspaper articles as well as published tomes. I also take the opportunity to historically connect complementary thinkers from inside and outside the anthology, not only Bertha von Suttner, F.M. Stawell, Merze Tate, and Hannah Arendt, for example, but also European and Russian thinkers who, in this same period, were connected across the continent through their methods, and across the boundaries of nonfiction and fiction through their concerns. Among those concerns are the tensions between idealism and realism, the diminishing status of peace as a defining political objective, and the distinctive gendering of war. Then there is the history of the challenges women regularly faced in order to make their arguments, often against the backdrop of actual wars. Here, these themes are organized under the headings: “The perennial problem of speaking about peace”; “The obligation to write about war”; “The politics of war”; and “Traditions of international thought.” In positing the prospect of “traditions,” I also take up the question interrogated by Women's International Thought: Whether, given “the multiple intersecting relations of power that shape intellectual production,” there can be “such thing as a women's tradition [my emphasis] of international thought”? The evidence of the anthology itself, I propose, shows that, through the twentieth century, women international thinkers have regularly confronted the significance of their difference, even as they have attempted to reorient their gendered positionality. In particular, tinctured with the darkest events of the past hundred years, the examples collected here suggest that some women themselves fostered a sense of intellectual tradition around the longevity (and persistence) of their gender-inflected political aims. In this essay, their stories and their insights are connected by my overarching claim: in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the long history of women's international thinking speaks to the difference that women's international thinking continues to make ( Sluga 2014 , 65–72).

To the extent that it has existed as a field, “international thought” has often evoked the history of pacifism, and pacifism has been associated with femininity, and even, occasionally, feminism ( Owens and Rietzler 2021 , 17; Sluga 2021 , 226). Historically, women have been well aware of the impact of these associations on any attempt to speak to peace as a legitimate international imperative. At the turn of the twentieth century, Bertha von Suttner—a baroness who founded the Austrian peace movement and eventually impressed the dynamite king Alfred Nobel to fund a peace prize—struggled against the stigma of being both a woman and a pacifist.

Since then, she has remained perhaps the best known of the women associated with turn-of-the-twentieth-century international thinking about war. She has hardly lacked biographers, and she was herself an early publicist of her ideas ( Moyn 2021 , 32). 2 Her autobiography—published in German in 1889 as Die Waffen nieder! , in English in 1892 as Lay down your arms! , and, later, in many other languages—reached at least a million readers in her own lifetime. In 1905, Suttner (like many of the women under discussion in this intellectual history) was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in part for her role at the 1899 Hague peace congress famously organized by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II to somehow manage the escalating militarization of Europe's imperial powers. This was the tense setting in which Suttner took up as one of her main themes the realism of pacifists.

Suttner's address to the 1899 congress—now reproduced in the Women's International Thought anthology—directly attacks what she saw as a prevailing and disabling misconception: that “members of peace societies imagine under the name of universal peace a condition of general harmony, a world without fighting or divisions, with undisputed frontiers settled for all time, and inhabited by angelic beings, overflowing with gentleness and love.” She attributes this misrepresentation to the enemies of the peace movement, who accuse it of “absurdities … which it has never asserted.” In contrast, Suttner describes pacifism's realism: “[t]he friends of peace do not desire to found their kingdom on impossibilities, nor on conditions that might perhaps prevail thousands of years hence, but on the living present and living humanity” ( von Suttner 1899 , 50–69). The peace movement she leads does not demand the “avoidance of disputes,” as she clarifies, “for that is impossible” ( von Suttner 1899 , 56). Rather, she stresses, it is realistic; what pacifists want is for disputes between states to be settled “by arbitration instead of by force” ( von Suttner 1899 , 56).

In the early twentieth century, despite such protestations of realism, the authority of the peace movement's faith in arbitration remained vulnerable to the derision of its “enemies” and to the impact of the unprecedented scale of the arms race that provoked the 1899 congress in the first place. After war broke out in late 1914, the American economist and pacifist Emily Greene Balch acknowledged an inevitability to the “widespread feeling” “that this is not the moment to talk of a European peace” (Balch would eventually win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1946). In October 1915, she equally insisted that “the psychological moment” for talking about peace was near. It could even be coaxed forth by beginning preparations for peace, through discussion of the terms and principles of a future peace:

In each country there are those that want to continue the fight until military supremacy is achieved, in each there are powerful forces that seek a settlement of the opposite type, one which instead of containing within itself the threats to international stability that are involved in annexation, humiliation of the enemy, and competition between armaments, shall secure national independence all round, protect the rights of minorities and foster international co-operation. ( Balch 1915 , 24)

Earlier that year, as battles raged through the nerve centers of Europe's security alliances, Balch was among the women—three British, some American, and one thousand mostly Dutch delegates—who gathered from April 28 to May 1 in The Hague, not uncoincidentally the site of the 1899 congress. Their aim was precisely to pursue the discussions required for a just and early peace. The Women's International Thought anthology includes texts from many of the women involved in The Hague congress, although not the famous manifesto on which the women agreed ( National Peace Federation 1915 ; Costin 1982 , 301–15; Vellacott 1993 , 23–56).

Hardly a conventional intellectual text, the intellectual authority of the 1915 Hague manifesto rests on its capture of the thinking of well-known American and British feminists such as Balch, Jane Addams, and Helena Swanwick, as well as the Hungarian Rosika Schwimmer ( National Peace Federation 1915 ). On the one hand, the manifesto plainly states the principles that Balch predicted would dominate peacemaking: national independence, minority rights, and international cooperation. Indeed, their international thinking possibly influenced, and certainly anticipated, the eventual terms of peacemaking in 1919, from the creation of international institutions, and the principle of nationality, to the democratic control of foreign policy. On the other hand, as importantly, the manifesto espouses topics that were not acceptable in the delineation of a new international politics: the importance of education and women's suffrage as means by which peace might be permanently maintained. Indeed, the Council of Ten who eventually decided the terms of the postwar peace explicitly and unanimously refused to accommodate the status of women in the peace settlement on the grounds that authority over that question defined national sovereignty and thus could not be put on an international agenda ( Sluga 2005a , 166–83; 2005b , 300–19; 2006 ). For our purposes, the manifesto and the history surrounding it is a vital example of how women's rights and women's political roles were consistently the point of distinction between women's international thinking and international thought more narrowly defined.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the women's Hague congress and its decisions were co-opted into general historical inventories of pacifism and internationalism, particularly as part of the story of the creation of the enduring organization “Women's International League for Peace and Freedom” (WILPF), although its specific peacemaking agenda was as often neglected. Less attention has been paid too to the ways in which these women were targeted by governments for their convictions. We know that some European governments attempted to deter attendance on the grounds that so-called peace propaganda might have undermined strategic wartime patriotic programs. In this same context, social historians have shown the extent of censoring of peace publications as well as unprecedented levels of harassment through raids and surveillance that took place in England. The German government, which overall tried to avoid arrest and prosecution, resorted instead to blocking the circulation of peace activists’ publications and views ( Ewing and Gearty 2001 ). In the United States, there is the example of Balch's activism leading to the loss of her academic position at Wellesley. In Russia, in 1915, Anna Shabanova was forced by police order to dismantle the Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) women's peace society she had established on the Austrian model of Bertha von Suttner ( Cohen 2012 , 184).

The connections between the Russian and other European experiences, events, and ideas ran deep. Before the Hague meeting, in March 1915, Shabanova and other socialist women organized their own anti-war meeting in the (wartime) neutral Swiss capital of Berne. Clara Zetkin, the German Secretary of the International Bureau of Socialist Women and one of the key organizers of this Berne congress, faced the opprobrium of her male peers in the German Socialist Party (SPD), which forbade its members’ attendance. The French women's delegation too suffered the criticism of the (male-dominated) French socialist party. When, regardless, the Berne peace congress went ahead, its participants—twenty-two women from Russia, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, and Sweden—agreed a manifesto that was the work mainly of Zetkin, drawn up in their company. The Berne women shared with the Hague attendees a certain obstinacy and pariah status—and the Hague and Berne women even supported each other's efforts to some extent. However, there were also important differences. The Hague manifesto was intrinsically a liberal document asserting the importance of peace, the intrinsically pacifist nature of women's influence, and the pacific influence of free seas, commerce, and trade routes. The Berne manifesto, in contrast, was oriented toward a socialist rather than liberal critique. It targeted not just arms, but also capitalism, making space for violence in the interests of politics: “Down with capitalism, which sacrifices untold millions to the wealth and power of the propertied! Down with the war! Forward to socialism!,” it proclaimed ( Manifesto of the International Conference of Socialist Women at Berne 1915 ).

The themes of the Berne congress are represented by the Russian socialist Alexandra Kollontai, who contributed her thinking to the congress from a distance. Kollontai had a history of participating in anti-war protests in Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium; she had been arrested for organizing an anti-war demonstration in Belgium the previous year and was absent from Berne because she could not get permission from the French government to cross its territory. In the circumstances, she wrote her breathless pamphlet, Who Needs the War ?. Echoing the message of the Berne gathering, Kollontai describes the war as “a madness, an abomination, a crime,” and, more specifically, as benefitting only capitalism and a capitalist class ( Kollontai 1916 ; Kollontai [1926] 1994 , 123). On these same grounds, she argues in favor of a different imperative: a workers’ revolution. As we will see, political ideology was a critical theoretical dividing point for some women international thinkers on the question of when war might be justified.

Just as the First World War drew women to reflect on war and peace in a range of political contexts, so too did the end of the war, and the novel postwar international institutional setting ( Stöckmann 2018 , 215–35). The unprecedented intergovernmental body, the League of Nations, was the product of wartime activism. New research by Helen McCarthy, for example, has shown the extent of popular support among women as well as men during the war for a League of Nations that might be equipped to ensure peace in the future ( McCarthy 2011 ). Among those supporters was the Cambridge-based classicist Florence Melian Stawell, whose activism took the form of writing pamphlets and addressing the compatibility of national patriotism and internationalism ( Sluga 2021 , 223–43). After the war, Stawell contributed to the English “Home Library” series a long history of the internationalist basis of peace thinking. Her book, The Growth of International Thought (1927), was meant to educate a broader public in the enduring and universal internationalist values of the newly established League of Nations, as an instrument of world peace ( Stawell 1929 , 7, 18–26). From the viewpoint of intellectual history, The Growth of International Thought is the product of Stawell's classicist expertise, which she shared with so many of the male scholars who led the wartime English League of Nations movement ( Sylvest 2004 , 409–32; Sluga 2006 , chapter 2; Stapleton 2007 , 261–91; McCarthy 2011 ). Like other classicists, she turned to Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian wars, “in which oligarchs fought against democrats, where there was ‘every form of murder and every extreme of cruelty’,” as “one of the strongest indictments against war ever written.” The Peloponnesian wars taught that the causes of belligerence are “the lust for power and gain.” War not only has its origins in the motivations of men, it changes them; once war begins “men are tempted by dire necessity,” and many “grow like the lives they lead” ( Owens and Rietzler 2021 , 41).

Stawell's interest in classical texts also underlines what women's international thinking often added to discussions of war and peace, namely an explicit engagement with the difference women made, such as their gendered investment in peace. Sometimes, the rationale for this difference was biological motherhood. Some of the authors of the 1915 Hague manifesto argued that since women's maternal roles instinctively inclined them to peace, granting women rights would inevitably encourage peace. Mostly, however, arguments for making women's rights a basis for peace were proposed on the grounds of social not biological reasoning: the social forms of masculinity that supported gender inequality also contributed to war. On this same view, conventional forms of femininity were more likely to be associated with pacifist ambitions. Emily Greene Balch understood that women could have the same emotions as men, and be likewise “inflamed by nationalism, intoxicated by the glories of war, embittered by old rancors” ( Balch 1922 , 334–36). However, she ventured that psychologically, women “have a less powerful instinctive pugnacity than men,” and she underlined the sociological fact that women had “in the mass… taken little part in the political life of their peoples.” In war, women “always stood to lose even more than men, as Europe knew” ( Balch 2022 , 493). Stawell turned as well to Euripides’ Trojan Women and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata for lessons about the different roles men and women could take in international thinking ( Owens et al. 2022 , 21; Sluga 2021 , 28; Stawell, 2022, 42). 3 In both plays, women reject men's violence. Most famously, Lysistrata , the eponymous figure (“whose name means ‘the Peacemaker’”) determines to band women from all sides together “in a vow that they will have nothing to do with men until the senseless war between them is ended” (cited in Owens et al. 2022 , 42).

Through the twentieth century, in the face of prevalent episodes of imperial and nation-state-based violence, women have felt an obligation to think and write about the fundamental causes of war. Emily Greene Balch explained that “the great war” revealed human nature to be “a thin crust barely concealing a substratum of explosive passions and interests which may break out in a disastrous eruption at any time.” This same truth made it all the more imperative to ask what could be done “to prevent the calamity?” Virginia Woolf, among the most famous of English writers, arrived at this sense of obligation too, but only belatedly, more than a decade after the First World War or Great War as it was known.

Initially, in the face of the overwhelming tragedy of the First World War, its decimation of a generation of men, Woolf felt that the war could not be spoken about; its suffering was so great that it could not be given words and had to be passed over in silence. In A Room of One's Own (1929), she reflected that feelings that were possible before the First World War—including “the abandonment and rapture” excited by love poetry—“could not be written about after it” ( Caine 2015 , 20; Winter 2019 , 223–35; Beganovic 2020 ). By the 1930s, however, as Woolf contemplated the second year of the conflict of the Spanish Civil War, the ominous onward march of colonial wars and militarism, and accruing refugee crisis, all compounding the threat of another cataclysmic war in Europe, she saw it as her duty to write about war, and to ask how war might be prevented. Her answers took up the themes of A Room of One's Own —the social and political constrictions of gender roles and relations, women's inequality in the professions and in education, the (incomplete promise of) the postwar expansion of the franchise, and the broader social and psychological damage inflicted on individuals by “patriarchy”—and brought them to bear on her understanding of war ( Beganovic 2020 ).

In Three Guineas (1938), published on the eve of the Second World War, Virginia Woolf set out to understand the ways in which middle-class women's exclusion from the corridors of power and influence was tied to predominant forms of masculinity, and masculinity to the causes of war. Observing the powerlessness of middle-class women such as herself, she noted that women could not be members of the stock exchange so they could not use the pressure of force nor the pressure of money to prevent or stop wars. Women could not be diplomats so they could not negotiate treaties to end wars. In England, women could participate in civil service and legal institutions, but they had precarious positions and little authority ( Woolf 1966 , 45). Women could write to the press to voice their views; however, the decision what to print or not was in hands of men. In sum, Woolf declaimed, identifying with her middle-class female subject, “we have no weapon with which to enforce our will”: “all the weapons with which an educated man can enforce his opinion are either beyond our grasp or so nearly beyond it that even if we used them we could scarcely inflict one scratch … educated women [are] even weaker than working class women who can use their labour in the munitions factories to protest” ( Woolf 1966 , 12). Woolf connected the precarity of the public situation of women such as herself to their private circumstances, to “the fear which forbids freedom in the private house. That fear, small, insignificant and private as it is, is connected with the other fear, the public fear, which is neither small nor insignificant, the fear which has led you to ask us to help you to prevent war” ( Woolf 1966 , 129–30). This connection between the private and the public becomes her method of dissecting the origins and prevention of war and illustrating its tragedy.

While Stawell returned to classical texts to understand how men's psychological and material motivations could lead to war, and how war changed men, Woolf dwelt on the contemporary situation, drawing on the evidence of everyday life. In particular, she discusses the photographs sent by the Spanish Government to media outlets “with patient pertinacity about twice a week” as witness to the civil war there, and intended to arouse sympathy: “They are not pleasant photographs to look upon. They are photographs of dead bodies for the most part” ( Woolf 1966 , 10).

This morning's collection contains the photograph of what might be a man's body, or a woman's; it is so mutilated that it might, on the other hand, be the body of a pig. But those certainly are dead children, and that undoubtedly is the section of a house. A bomb has torn upon the side; there is still a birdcage hanging in what was presumably the sitting room, but the rest of the house looks like nothing so much as a bunch of spillikins suspended in mid-air. ( Woolf 1966 , 10–11)

The gaze in Woolf's text belongs to women, in this case. She suggests that women's specific social and historical situatedness connects them: “A common interest unites us; it is one world, one life. How essential it is that we should realize that unity the dead bodies, the ruined houses prove. For such will be our ruin if you, in the immensity of your public abstractions forget the private figure, or if we in the intensity of our private emotions forget the public world. Both houses will be ruined, the public and the private, the material and the spiritual for they are inseparably connected.”

Woolf also uses photographs to dissect the social origins of the gendered dimensions of war as a profession, war sold as a source of happiness and excitement for men, and war as an outlet for manly qualities. In particular, she analyses circulating representations of the masculinity embodied by the orchestrators of the violence erupting across Europe, their portraiture declaiming “[t]he quintessence of virility, the perfect type of which all the others are imperfect adumbrations”:

He is a man certainly, His eyes are glazed; his eyes glare. His body, which is braced in an unnatural position, is tightly cased in a uniform. Upon the breast of that uniform are sewn several medals and other mystic symbols. His hand is upon a sword. He is called in German and Italian Fuhrer or Duce ; in our own language Tyrant or Dictator. And behind him lie ruined houses and dead bodies – men, women and children.

Woolf was not focused on this image, she explained, “in order to excite once more the sterile emotion of hate”. Instead, she wanted to use the photo “to release other emotions such as the human figure, even thus crudely, in a coloured photograph arouses in us who are human beings.” She was interested in the “connection” it suggested, between the public and private worlds: “the tyrannies and servilities of the one, are the tyrannies and servilities of the other.” ( Woolf 1966 , 142).

In using the medium of the photograph to gender and to connect the private figure and the public world, Woolf anticipates later treatments of atrocity photography and humanitarianism, and discussions of the representations of fascism, whether by Susan Sontag or feminist international relations scholars. She shares an interest in patriarchy as an elemental cause of war, and, like other women international thinkers before her, renders women's socially and historically determined difference, “their membership of the ‘society of outsiders,’” “in the historical, social circumstances” they face, “their only weapon in the prevention of war.” For Woolf in particular, women's “outsider” position becomes their means of challenging “whether the new militarization of the society was really inevitable and necessary” ( Woolf 1966 , 115). “Different as we are,” Woolf contends, “as facts have proved, both in sex and education … it is from that difference, as we have already said, that our help can come, if help we can, to protect liberty, to prevent war” ( Owens et al. 2022 , 499).

Significantly, Woolf does not claim that any dimensions of masculinity or women's difference are natural, even if they are normative. They are, instead, she argues, symptomatic of “patriarchy.” They are the product of patriarchal institutions and practices. This same explanation means, she argues, that patriarchal gender norms can be tackled through education: “What kind of society, what kind of human being … should [education] seek to produce?”; What is “the kind of society the kind of people that will help to prevent war”? ( Woolf 1966 , 3). In reply, she posits that instead of the arts of dominating other people, the arts of ruling, of killing, and of acquiring land and capital, education should focus on “medicine, mathematics, music, painting and literature,” and “the arts of human intercourse” ( Woolf 1966 , 34). 4

The gender emphasis of Woolf's argument for how to prevent war, and the writer's obligation to take up that topic, has resonated in the themes of women international thinkers, before and after. Her educational thematic has woven its way in and out of twentieth-century rationales for inventing international institutions, not least the League of Nations Intellectual Cooperation initiative, and the United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization. It also underlines the extent to which women's international thinking—with its interest in the intersecting spheres of the private and public, the emotional, intimate relationship between masculinity in the private sphere and militarism in the public sphere, moving across textual/visual sources, and across the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction—has evaded the generic limitations of the existing canon of international thought. Here I want to take up the potential for this same international thinking to link Virginia Woolf to the Nobel literary prizewinner Svetlana Alexievich, writing at the other end of the twentieth century, in the midst of the authoritarian violence of the Russian and Belorussian states in the post–Cold War ( Beganovic 2020 , 28, 33). 5

Born in 1948 in West Ukraine to a Belorussian father and Ukrainian mother, Svetlana Alexievich has been a prominent anti-war voice since the end of the Cold War, convinced that writing about war is an obligation ( Alexievich and Gimson 2018 , 71–72). 6 She is a fiction writer whose novels have been characterized as “attempts to explore human nature through the accounts of war witnesses and to explain more complex social structures in order to understand the causes of wars and prevent them”; “Alexievich says that she wants to show how disgusting wars are, so that even thinking about war would be impossible, even for generals, and so, she does not write a history of war, but the history of feelings or emotional knowledge about wars” ( Novikau 2017 , 320).

In Boys in Zinc (1989), Alexievich’s witness account of the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), she poses the question, “How can we recover a normal vision of life?”: “After the great wars of the twentieth century and the mass deaths, writing about the modern (small) wars, like the war in Afghanistan, requires different ethical and metaphysical stances” ( Alexievich 2017 , 18–19). Against the background of ongoing Russian imperial wars, her interest lies in reclaiming the specificity of the single human being ( Moorehead 2019 ); “The only human being for someone. Not as the state regards him, but who he is for his mother, for his wife, for his child” ( Alexievich 2017 , 19). Like Stawell and others before her, Alexievich understood that war changed people; she also believed that analyzing postwar time is often more important than analyzing the war itself: “People do not change during war. People change after the war when they look at reality through the lens of their war experience” ( Novikau 2017 , 322).

As we have seen, in these repertoires the diagnosis of war, as often fundamentally associated with masculinity, has made the discussion of war a difficult, if not illegitimate, intellectual terrain for women, while also providing the provocation for women's contributions as different. Is Alexievich an international thinker? She is certainly connected to a tradition of women's international thinking, of women writing about war and peace across its disciplinary confines. Alexievich, like Woolf, works with a “biographical historical method” that aims to dismantle the structures that provoke “the strong emotions which push people, particularly men, to fight” ( Beganovic 2020 ). As writers, Alexievich and Woolf are exemplary of a particular strand of international thinking—characterized by the interplay of fiction, biography, and historical narrative—that can be traced through the twentieth century. As we have seen, in the early twentieth century, the challenge of writing about peace manifested in the ways in which women thought about war, and the way they experienced the costs of that writing, whether social opprobrium, threats, physical attacks, and criminal penalties. While the sociohistorical connections between a middle-class English writer of the interwar years and a female Soviet/post-Soviet intellectual are thinner than those that might connect Alexievich to Anna Shabanova and Alexandra Kollontai, for example, even Woolf bore the brunt of visceral attacks for her “peace propaganda” ( Lee 1997 , 698). In the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Alexievich—like Russian and European women before her engaging the imperative of writing about peace and war— has been accused of “defamation” and “desecration of the soldiers’ honor” ( Sud nad tsinkovimi malchikami 1994 , 130). She has endured vicious political persecution at the hand of Belorussian courts. These have charged her with distorting and falsifying the testimony of Afghan veterans and of offending mothers with portraits of their boys “as soulless killer-robots, pillagers, drug addicts and rapists” ( Sud nad tsinkovimi malchikami 1994 , 130). Facing threats to her personal safety, Alexievich has continued her criticism of Belorussia in the current Ukraine war through her fiction and nonfictional writing, pursued as a kind of obligation ( Belarusian Nobel Laureate Alexievich 2022 ). Just why states object to women's international thinking is clarified by the thinkers themselves, who have detailed the entangled private and public, state and individual interests at stake.

The Politics of War

If we follow the tracks laid by the anthology Women and International Thought , the Second World War leads to other unexpected albeit prominent women thinkers, working across literary and political genres. Some of these women were more enmeshed in the disciplinary landscape of international politics, and yet their status as thinkers was equally neglected. Merze Tate's (1942 ) The Disarmament Illusion —originally a Harvard doctoral thesis—was written as “a transnational intellectual history of debates about war as a mechanism for dispute resolution, about the conflict between state sovereignty and the need for international cooperation, and about the perpetuation of historical power imbalances” ( Savage 2021 , 271). Writing in the context of the Second World War, from the double marginality of her gender and race difference, as an African-American woman, Tate thought about disarmament in the context of the long history of the imperial wars of the previous century: “conflicts fought in the Far East and South Africa”; whether Russia in Manchuria, or “a combined European and American army” avenging “the outrage of the Boxers by sacking Peking”; or England fighting in the Transval, “5000 miles from her base of supplies”; and even the United States, “conquering and holding under military rule conquered possessions an even greater distance from home waters” ( Tate 1942 , 294).

Traversing “economic imperialism” and the state-building military precepts of the late-nineteenth century, Tate does not presume that the prospect of disarmament is an illusion. Rather, she argues that disarmament policies have been ineffective ( Tate 1942 , xi). Disarmament is an issue that stands “for a general simultaneous reduction or non-augmentation of armies and navies or military budgets” ( Tate 1942 , ix). It is not “a matter of mathematics nor of morals but of politics” ( Tate 1942 , 346). By politics, she means the ideological investments of states “seek[ing] to give effect to their national policies through armaments as well as through monetary and immigration policies, tariffs and embargoes”: “armament competition is inextricably interwoven with political tension, and international agreement on armaments is possible only when the national policies of states are not in conflict”; in this same context, an international disarmament process standardizes “the relative diplomatic power of the countries involved and prevents the use of armament competition to upset the political equilibrium” ( Tate 1942 , 27, 246).

The historian Barbara Savage tells us that given the failure of disarmament and the cascade of early twentieth-century wars, Tate had much less confidence than her male mentors, or her female predecessors, that “an educated public might bring pressure to bear on these issues, or that more open diplomacy might yield different results.” In canvassing explanations that acknowledged economic or gender determinism, Tate “resisted the idea that women were early or especially effective advocates of disarmament” and she was skeptical of any “materialistic anti-war impulse.” “Peace would only come from ‘a juster conception of international relations’ and some ‘rational international political system’” ( Savage 2021 , 273). Nevertheless, we also find that when Tate studied past peace congresses, churches, international jurists, interparliamentary groups, and “public opinion,” she reasserted a realist pacifist tradition stretching back to the 1899 Hague peace congress and to Bertha von Suttner.

As we have already seen, the question of realism is a persistent thematic in women's international thinking, defining the reach and limits of reflection on the prevention of wars and the maintenance of peace. When we move (as the anthology does) to Hannah Arendt, among the best-known most often cited women thinkers of the latter half of the twentieth century, we return to the predominant concern with the relationship of war to peace, how war changes men and women, and how this fact impacts politics. Writing in the full knowledge of the consequences of the Second World War, and the Holocaust, Arendt's “The Question of War” (1958–1959) takes a lesson from the classical past. Because “military action invalidated the basic equality of citizens … war belongs, as the Greeks saw it, in a non-political sphere” ( Owens 2022 , 114):

What was uniquely wrong about wars of annihilation … was not just the numbers of the dead or the destruction of entire cities, but the destruction of an ‘historical and political reality … that cannot be rebuilt because it is itself not a product … [the] action and speech created by human relationships’ ” (Owens 2002, 83).

Given this understanding of how war undermines politics, as Owens explains, there is only one situation in which Arendt “would have supported the principle of military action,” namely “for the immediate and short-term goal of stopping genocide since it ‘destroys the very possibility of a political world’” ( Owens 2007 , 115). We learn from Arendt that violence is “only rational to achieve immediate and short-term ends, such as ending ethnic cleansing or genocide, not abstract goals of any kind.” Indeed, “all other war should be ruled out if in practice it resulted in a challenge to any ‘actually existing solidarity of mankind’” (Owens 2009, 147). 7

In this same vein, Arendt anticipates that “a future war will not be about a gain or loss of power, about borders, export markets, or Lebensraum, that is, about things that can also be achieved by means of political discussion and without the use of force” ( Owens 2021 , 110). War cannot be understood as “the ultima ratio of negotiations, whereby the goals of war were determined at the point where negotiations broke off”; rather, it is “a continuation of politics by other means,” “the means of cunning and deception” ( Owens 2007 , 91–110; Arendt 2009 , 165).’

Arendt's prognosis resonates with the thinking of women in the past, such as F.M. Stawell, who argues that war not only has its origins in the motivations of men, it changes them; once war begins, “men are tempted by dire necessity,” and many “grow like the lives they lead” ( Committee on the Bureau of International Research in Harvard University and Radcliffe College [n.d. c. 1923] , 41). 8 It also resonates with our present, in which the idea of “new wars”—Mary Kaldor's term—and “forever war” suggests that violence has become its own raison d'etre ( Kaldor 2005 , 491–98). Like women international thinkers before her, Kaldor represents in this “tradition” a woman whose scholarly or theoretical work overlaps with their activist engagement with war and peace. For these same reasons—her gendered relationship to a tradition built on women's difference, and her activism—her thinking can be central to international thought, while she herself has been forced to constantly negotiate a place in a male-dominated canon and discipline.

As women have addressed the realities of war, at times their international thinking has insisted on the links between peace and women's rights as a dimension of the realism of peace itself. It has also referenced an accruing realist/pacifist tradition. In the mid-twentieth century, Merze Tate insisted that her book Disarmament Illusion was “not peace propaganda,” and distinguished her proposals and ideas “for a general, simultaneous reduction or non-augmentation of armies and navies or military budgets” from “the complete abolition of armaments as implied in [Bertha von Suttner's] phrase ‘lay down your arms’” ( Tate 1942 , ix; Savage 2021 , 271). 9 Of course, this was not how Suttner argued the realism of the pacifist cause. Suttner saw herself navigating “that narrow path between fruitless utopianism on the one side and reckless realism on the other, leading to a higher form of international relations” ( Stöcker 2022 , 405). But even as Tate's relatively critical invocation of Suttner's motif anticipated criticisms of the impossibility of disarmament, it inadvertently echoed Suttner's insistence that realism grew out of the ideal; ideals once considered utopian had in fact become real. Suttner noted at the turn of the twentieth century that there was nothing more utopian than the prospect of an “international parliament” and plans for an “International Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration.” “One forgets to contemplate,” she observed in regard to the 1899 Hague peace congress, “the overwhelming fact that such a Conference has been called together by an autocrat in our ultra-military times, and in which every State takes part. Apart from all that will be achieved by speeches, propositions and resolutions ( Suttner 2022 , 375).” She insisted that “the significance and the effect of the event itself must be of the greatest influence, and the first official Peace Conference appears like a miracle in the history of the world.” The conference, in her view, cut through the distinction between ideal and real, because it had created a reality. Half a century later, Merze Tate too presented “the fact of the [1899] Conference itself” (“this wildest dream of the Utopians”) as evidence that governments had taken up debates that are otherwise the concern of philosophers, jurists, and even utopians ( Suttner 2022 , 377).

We can pick up these same threads in 1985, as the Swedish international thinker Alva Myrdal gives her 1985 Nobel Peace Prize lecture. In the fractious landscape of the Cold War's hot conflicts and a nuclear arms race, Myrdal explicitly orients her intellectual journey to disarmament thinking by referencing Suttner's (1899) motif—not uncoincidentally, since Suttner had all but invented the prize ( Sluga 2014 ). Myrdal comments that despite Hiroshima, in the first decade of the post–Second World War, she herself did not really pay much attention to “the problem of ‘atomic weapons’ as they were known.” She was more concerned with reconstruction and “the great historic drama of decolonization”; “I was not from the outset alert to the great risks of an incipient militarization of the word; I was not ready to cry out: Down with weapons”. “My opposition,” she declares, “was directed more against the repression of human rights and the cruelties of war, particularly the bombing of civilians; I personally experienced some of it in London. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons shocked me as it did the rest of the world, but I shared the hope of many that the end of the war also meant the end of nuclear weapons” ( Myrdal 1977 , xxi.).

Which tradition of women's international thinking should we remember? The imperative to write about war, the consequences of writing about peace? The relationship between the private and the public? The role of education and other social institutions? The determinism of patriarchy and/or gender? To be sure, discerning a tradition of women's international thinking offers no simple answers to the question “how to prevent war,” or the challenge of peace, or the difference women's international thinking has made. Instead, that thinking has navigated usefully the difficult path between ideal and real choices by capitalizing on the sociohistorical bases of difference and the possibilities for change. Woolf acknowledges that it is hard to maintain “the recurring dream that has haunted the human mind since the beginning of time, the dream of peace, the dream of freedom” when one has “the sound of the guns in your ears.” In these same circumstances, she ventures that even when the imperative is “how to prevent war,” rather than to consider the nature of peace, women's difference can be put to use:

since we are different, our help must be different … The answer to your question must be that we can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods. We can best help you to prevent war not by joining your society but by remaining outside your society but in cooperation with its aim. That aim is the same for us both. It is to assert “the rights of all-all men and women – to the respect in their persons of the great principles of Justice and Equality and Liberty.” ( Woolf 1966 , 673)

In this tradition of women's international thinking, the tension between realism and idealism has also been converted into a tension between the past—which has to be broken with—and a reimagined future initiated in the present. Here is Arendt on this same theme: “The lifespan of man running towards death would inevitably carry everything human to ruin and destruction if it were not for the faculty of interrupting it and beginning something new, a faculty which is inherent in action like an every-present reminder that men, though they may day, are not born in order to die but in order to begin” ( Arendt [1958] 2019 , 246; Cooper 1991 ; Beckman and D'Amico 1994 ; Sluga 2005b , 2017 , 2021 ).

Whether we consider the status of the international order, our era of artificial intelligence, the changing nature of wars, or the changing position of women themselves, women's difference still matters to international thinking. On the one hand, in many European and trans-Atlantic countries, women now have profiles in the public sphere to the extent that searching for the particularism of gender in analyses of war and peace and women's international thinking seems irrelevant. On the other hand, the gendered nature of women's difference remains relevant, whether in commentary that remarks on the presence of women or, indeed, on the difference that feminist foreign policy itself could make to the prevention of war. In the early twenty-first century, women lead countries and regions, and intergovernmental institutions. They can use the pressure of force and the pressure of money; they can even negotiate treaties. Women, the German press suggests, have been prominent in the commentary field on the war in Ukraine. The Moscow Times talks of the “feminine” face of Russian war protests. Female prime ministers of Finland, Sweden, and Estonia have overseen decisions about membership of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 2022, the European Union (EU) stateswomen Ursula Van der Leyen and Roberta Metsola were prominent early visitors of the embattled president in Kyiv and supporters of the war against Russia as a just war. Even where women do not lead, “feminist foreign policy” ostensibly guides the thinking and strategy of some of the countries looking on, not least the EU itself. In a prime example of the confluence of these shifts, the green German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has had to reconcile a new era of German militarization and her commitment to “feminist foreign policy” ( Speech by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock 2022 ).

We also know, thanks to the anthology, that women's international thinking does not always diverge from the existing canon of international thought dominated by men. Certainly, the Vietnam war and its purpose found its supporters among women international thinkers such as Roberta Wohlstetter, whose 1960 Bancroft winning book Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision argued that “US national security required an assiduously aggressive posture, a willingness to fight and win a nuclear war” ( Speech by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock 2022 ). In 2022, this is a position that echoes through Anne Applebaum's insistence that democracies should not only have weapons, but also wield them or risk the annihilation of democracy ( Applebaum 2022 ). However, it is also true that individual women have regularly taken up the problems of war and peace by thinking against the grain of ideological gender constraints. If we want to understand the lack of enthusiasm of African and Asian states for the United States and Europe's rallying call against the Russian invasion in Ukraine, we need only look at Women's International Thought’ s examples of writing about the dangers of imperial exceptionalism, not least Mary McCarthy's Cold War “The other war,” which lambasted the moral standing of Washington, DC (the “Athens” of the twentieth century) and its war of “pacification” in Vietnam ( Bessner 2022 ; McCarthy 2022 , 121–26).

Women have always drawn on uncommon examples, arrived at uncommon conclusions, and forged alternative intellectual traditions in the process, even when they themselves did not remember them accurately. The difference that women thinking about war and peace have made should inspire us to further collections and considerations, picking up the remnants we still have, diverse in their historical contexts and languages, incorporating voices imagined as subaltern, or outside Europe, and back in time, picking up echoes we may have forgotten along the way. These remind us too of the importance of international thinking itself. This is the difference that the history of women as international thinkers makes.

I want to thank the editors of that volume, and Ekaterina Abramova for their advice and help with this essay. This essay was originally presented as a keynote at the Women's International Thought conference, LSE, May 2022.

In his recent critique of “forever wars,” and the maintenance of the oxymoronic legal concept “humane war,” Sam Moyn singles out the importance in the history of peace thinking of Suttner's Lay Down Your Arms , or Down with Weapons? Die Waffen nieder!

As the anthology editors note, even Stawell's middle name recognized the conquered inhabitants of Melos, her feminist reading of the “Greeks” prefigures more recent calls for “a Melian security studies.” “Introduction”, Owens et al. 2022 , 28.

I have drawn here from a broader selection of Three Guineas than that included in the anthology Women's International Thought .

This connection is inspired by the work of Velid Beganovic, a Bosnian scholar of Woolf who links her method to that of Alexievich.

All Russian texts here are translated by Ekaterina Abramova.

On these same grounds, in the postwar Arendt supports an international criminal court “to try and punish those responsible.”

“So it goes on till there is nothing but suspicion everywhere. There was no treaty binding enough to reconcile opponents: everyone knew that nothing was secure and therefore he thought only of his own safety; he could not afford to trust another.”

The quote continues “but in the wider significance given to it in popular language as meaning ‘limitation and reduction of armaments.’”

Research for this article has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no 885285).

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War and Peace in Modern World Essay

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Introduction

In our world of ever-increasing number of innovations and informational technologies there is hardly a problem which cannot be solved. The scientists are working out the medicines which can cure even AIDs and cancer, regardless the fact that the diseases which were considered fatal a couple of decades ago can be easily cured now. The world has developed a global network for communication and each day offers new inventions in which our ancestors would never believe in if in their times they heard that something like this would ever be possible to invent. Nevertheless, there remains one big problem the modern society seems to be unable to deal with. Every day we continue to listen to news reports about numerous cases of violence, crimes, natural disasters and wars, which in some parts of the world have lasted over the years and seem to never stop. At this, the reasons of the wars are in fact insignificant and seem to be not serious enough for starting something as terrible as a war. No matter how strange and unfair it may seem, but innocent people give their lives for a miserable strip of land which two governments of the belligerent countries are unable to share or because of the desire of one country to prove that it is more powerful than any other. And here the question arises: When will people all over the world stop wars and finally understand that wars and international conflicts are just a mere waste of money and, what is the most important, of human lives? Is that strip of land worth those losses and sufferings of innocent people involved in wars because of misunderstandings and inability to settle the governmental matters peacefully? Living in peace and prosperity is possible but a lot has to be done in order to achieve peaceful coexistence of different countries and their people in this small world which cannot function properly because of something people missed when forming their society.

First of all, people should admit that it is because of each of them that this world cannot become perfect and agree to introduce some changes into their lives. Everything depends on people and their desire to live peacefully: “Attempting to achieve world peace would mean that the people in this world would have to be willing to make some minor changes in the way we govern ourselves on this earth. Common sense should tell us that the best way to put an end to wars or military conflicts is to create a fully civilized world.” (Jim Des Rocher, 7). It should be admitted that a lot here depends on the government of each country because it is namely governments together with the world leaders who are responsible for wars and international conflict. Constant fighting for power and deciding who is the strongest and who should rule this world leads to what we have now and what will be very difficult to change. It should be realized that not only people of each country should become civilized but the governments as well because welfare of the whole world rather than of separate countries is at stake and with each day the risk of the world to get consumed with uncontrolled violence is increasing. Creating a civilized society will help in achieving world peace and proving to each other that living peacefully in prosperity is not only possible to achieve but is easy to maintain once the desired is already attained: “Civilized countries settle their disputes peacefully. Once you have established a civilized world the chances for military conflicts goes away.” (Jim Des Rocher, 33).

Second, to mention but not less important on the way of achieving world peace is bringing up of such qualities as compassion, justice and mutual forgiveness each of which is necessary for proper functioning of a society. It is striking how brutal and hard-hearted the people of our generation became. Everybody is obsessed with money and is ready to hurt and kill the others in order to gain more money, get promoted or achieve something in this life. Most of people do not care about the others and stopped helping each other though mutual readiness has always been the basis of a successful and prospering society. If mutual assistance becomes a part of each person’s life it will be a grain of mustard seed on the way of achieving world peace. It is also necessary for justice to rule the world for everybody to get proper punishment and for all people to live in fair conditions: “Peace seems to conflict with justice; the one deletes the past, the other acts on it” (Martin Ramirez, 65). Justice should be an integral part of each society for its members to feel secured and to know that their misdeeds will be punished. And as for mutual forgiveness, this noble quality will help make the world understanding and sensible. Learning to forgive should be a part of each person’s life as only being able to forgive the others one can earn a chance to be forgiven: “To seek peace through forgiveness is a life’s program, and it is a worthwhile risk even to the extent of heroism. But one cannot forget that forgiveness also has its own demands: truth (recognition of the crime) and justice (reparation), together with the guarantee that it will not be repeated.” (Martin Ramirez, 65).

And the final important factor directly influencing the world peace is religion. There exist three main religions in this world and supporters of each of them believe that only their religion is the only true one whereas the rest do not have any right for existence. Religion matters have always caused conflicts and to fight this problem is senseless that’s why one has just to face the reality. Modern society does not make tries to introduce a single religion or to abolish religion as such because the history proved that it will get back to the society as it is an essential part of it. Religion gives people hope for the best and turning to God for help they believe sincerely that everything possible will be done in order to make their lives better. World peace depends on the peace of society thus on the peace of each person. If chaos rules the world not a single person will find peace in him and vice versa. The task of people is to support faith in each other and never to let troubles weaken their faith because if the religion won’t be practiced world peace will be out of the question. Religion makes people intelligent and understanding, well-disposed, noble and generous. Without religion they will become aggressive, arrogant, self-centered and this will cause conflicts all around the world. This is why religion should be freely and widely practised in order to make all people believe that if they treat each other well, if they support each other and do not forget about morality they make a contribution into a difficult but rewarding process of achieving world peace and prosperity.

To sum it up, the modern world full of violence and brutality, ruled by those who being in constant pursuit of power use innocent people to prove that their country is the strongest badly needs some improvements because now it is in danger of collapse and each day is being destroyed by people who live in it. To achieve world peace and prosperity seems impossible but just as a lot of other great deeds what it requires is time, efforts and strong desire to change the life of every person for better. It is possible to make this world better even if not perfect and keys to this are the building of a civilized society where both people and government will be civilized, the desire of each person to eradicate his/her shortcomings by trying to develop such qualities as compassion, justice and mutual forgiveness. On top of this all stands the religion which irrespective of its kind keeps people united and gives them hope for the best. Provided that all these points are taken into consideration and put into life the necessary result will be achieved and our world spoiled by money and power will turn into what every person dreams about – a world with no sufferings and grief where people care about each other and are not afraid for their future.

Jim Des Rocher. (2004). How to Achieve World Peace: The Second Greatest Book Ever Written. Trafford Publishing.

J. Martin Ramirez. (2007). Peace Through Dialogue. International Journal on World Peace, 24 (1), 65.

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essay on world peace

Category:  Essays and Paragraphs On November 22, 2018 By Mary

World peace

World peace can be referred to as the state of people from all countries in the world being happy and living harmoniously with each other.

World peace creates one international community that can concentrate on greater issues that are affecting the planet like climate change.

When countries work together, they benefit their citizens since they can freely move from one country to another for employment, education or tourism.

Importance of world peace

• World peace leads to  increased globalization . Globalization is the act where people from different countries are able to interact freely with each other in various aspects.
• World peace also leads to the  promotion of tourism . With peace, people are freer to tour any country of their choice without fear of violence.
• World peace also contributes to  cultural exchanges . People are able to interact freely with each other and they can learn different cultures from other people.
• World peace also contributes to  more   developed economies . This is because people are able to carry out both domestic and foreign investments without fear of the risk of future violence.
• World peace also contributes to the  unification of people to fight unfair vices.  People are able to speak with one voice to get rid of vices like racism, religious discrimination and gender inequality.
• World peace also contributes to the  reduction of wars . Warring countries or internal nation conflicts can be reduced if world peace existed. War is the main cause of human suffering in the world.
• With world peace, you are also assured of  increased freedom of people . People get more freedom whether they are from different religions, race or country. This promotes global cohesion.

How to achieve world peace

• We can achieve world peace through having  international bodies  that will ensure that every nation upholds world peace. Such a body is United Nations and other world organizations that ensure every country has the responsibility of promoting peace.
• We can also achieve world peace through  upholding democracy . The main cause of world violence is dictatorship. When countries have the freedom to vote, they are able to choose the right leaders who are peace friendly.
• World peace is also achieved through  globalization . When globalization is encouraged, countries will uphold peace since they will avoid going into war with countries that have economic ties with them.
• We achieve world peace when there is  equal representation of nations in international bodies.  This will ensure that no nation is oppressed and no nation is left behind. When some nations are not represented, it creates inequality which may stir violence.
• World peace can also be achieved by  raising awareness  of the importance of world peace. Nations can create awareness to their citizens by teaching them on the benefits that they will get when they have peaceful coexistence with other nations.
• World peace can also be achieved by  sharing the country’s wealth equally . This is by giving equal opportunities to all and not overtaxing the poor. This will reduce the cases of rebel movements.

World peace is very important in the growth and prosperity of the entire global community. This is because with world peace, we are able to have more social cohesion and interactions that are beneficial to everyone.

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ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

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Argumentative Essay: Is Freedom of Movement a Factor To Threaten World Peace?

Freedom of movement defines the right of an individual to travel from one place to another or from one country to another. This right also allows individuals to visit different places and change their residence depending on their decision. This right is usually provided in many nations’ constitutions and international law. Freedom of movement states that each person has the right to move freely and decide to live inside the margins of each country. This right also entails that every individual has the right to vacate from any country even though it is their own and return any restriction. Freedom of movement can also be restricted in several different ways. It may also vary within different nations depending on the situations and are commonly based on safety justification, order, and the citizens’ health (Zolka, et al. 2021).

For example, in a few countries, the freedom of movement is commonly limited, especially for women and people of a different race like the black and minority social groups. A country may also decide to restrict the right to freedom of movement during times of war or political instability in the nation. Governments may also confine the right of freedom of movement to individuals who may have been found guilty of crimes and have also been sentenced to a jail term. A person may also be denied the right to freedom of movement if they have been released on bail or are a material witness in a court of law. A court may also deny the freedom of movement of a child, especially if there is a child custody dispute that limits a parent’s ability to travel with the child to a different country.

I fully support the United Nations Security Council that war is not a right to freedom of movement. The United Nations Security Council states that states should not fight war except when the United Nations has sanctions or in emergencies involving self-defence, whether individually or collectively. United Nations Security Council is the most vital structure in the United Nations and can permit soldiers’ placement to help maintain peace to the conflicting nations. This council states that the start of a war between countries with conflict should not guarantee one nation to freely move to the other nation through forceful means because there is an ongoing conflict between the two countries (Zolka, et al. 2021). This is evident in the current ongoing invasion of Russia in Ukraine whereby it has deployed its troops within the boundaries of Ukraine who have allowed the citizens of Russia to freely move to Ukraine without any legal document claiming that it is their right to freely reside in Ukraine because the Russian government has taken rule over its territory.

The United Nation Security Council has taken action against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine who, have taken rule over its boundaries by mistreating citizen who resides in Russia and allowing its citizens to be located in Ukraine without taking into consideration the legal steps and document needed for them to move to Ukraine in the right order fully. This council strongly forbids the use of intimidation and strength in conflicts. It states that the conflict between nations like Russia and Ukraine should not give Russia the right to freely move to Ukraine without any proper arrangement and give its citizens credit to reside or mistreat the Ukrainian citizens for no reason (MOLDOVAN, C. 2021).

I strongly oppose the statement of the Russian ambassador who states that the aggressive invasion of the Russian government in Ukraine is a fundamental right that allows moving into Ukraine freely and demands that it is their right to freedom of movement. This invasion has violated the right to freedom of movement because it has allowed criminals into the Ukrainian territory who have freely moved in and started mistreating the citizens of Ukraine. The Russian government has also blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempt to end the Ukraine crisis, seeking political action against the Russian military who invaded the Ukraine territory without any consultation (Zolka, et al. 2021).

It is wrong for Russian citizens to think that it is their right to freely move to the Ukrainian territory, especially during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, without any legal documents or steps. They argue that it is their right to freedom of movement because Ukraine belonged to them before the Russian revolution, which happened in 1917 which led to the formation of the Ukrainian nation before gaining its independence fully in 1991 after the disbanding of the Soviet Union. This is taking advantage of the citizens of Ukraine has increased terrorism and criminal activities in its territory for allowing the Russian citizen thus because there is a conflict between the two State (Cwicinskaja, et al., 2019).

In conclusion, I agree with the United Nations Security Council that war should not be a gate pass to give people the right to freedom of movement, mostly when there is a conflict between nations. This has led to increased terrorism and criminal activities because the criminal can easily reside in those countries. This also caused many deaths and hatred because people wanted to use force to enter the boundaries of countries involved in the war. People shouldn’t take advantage of the conflict between countries and enter their boundaries without proper arrangements. People should use the right legal documents like Visa, MasterCard, Passport and the Certificate of Movement in people, goods and services.

Cwicinskaja, N. (2019). Crimea and Liability of Russia and Ukraine under the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights.  Przegląd Prawniczy Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza , (9), 85-100.

Zolka, V., Tsarenko, O., Kushnir, I., Tsarenko, S., & Havrik, R. (2021). The impact of the pandemic COVID-19 on the human right to freedom of movement.  European Journal of Sustainable Development ,  10 (1), 376-376.

MOLDOVAN, C. (2021). EUROPEAN UNION’ACTORNESS EFFICIENCY CONCERNING THE PRESENCE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION IN UKRAINE.  digitales archiv , 119.

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Terrorism Essay for Students and Teacher

500+ words essay on terrorism essay.

Terrorism is an act, which aims to create fear among ordinary people by illegal means. It is a threat to humanity. It includes person or group spreading violence, riots, burglaries, rapes, kidnappings, fighting, bombings, etc. Terrorism is an act of cowardice. Also, terrorism has nothing to do with religion. A terrorist is only a terrorist, not a Hindu or a Muslim.

Types of Terrorism

Terrorism is of two kinds, one is political terrorism which creates panic on a large scale and another one is criminal terrorism which deals in kidnapping to take ransom money. Political terrorism is much more crucial than criminal terrorism because it is done by well-trained persons. It thus becomes difficult for law enforcing agencies to arrest them in time.

Terrorism spread at the national level as well as at international level.  Regional terrorism is the most violent among all. Because the terrorists think that dying as a terrorist is sacred and holy, and thus they are willing to do anything. All these terrorist groups are made with different purposes.

Causes of Terrorism

There are some main causes of terrorism development  or production of large quantities of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, etc. rapid population growth,  Politics, Social, Economic  problems, dissatisfaction of people with the country’s system, lack of education, corruption, racism, economic inequality, linguistic differences, all these are the major  elements of terrorism, and terrorism flourishes after them. People use terrorism as a weapon to prove and justify their point of view.  The riots among Hindus and Muslims are the most famous but there is a difference between caste and terrorism.

The Effects Of Terrorism

Terrorism spreads fear in people, people living in the country feel insecure because of terrorism. Due to terrorist attacks, millions of goods are destroyed, the lives of thousands of innocent people are lost, animals are also killed. Disbelief in humanity raises after seeing a terrorist activity, this gives birth to another terrorist. There exist different types of terrorism in different parts of the country and abroad.

Today, terrorism is not only the problem of India, but in our neighboring country also, and governments across the world are making a lot of effort to deal with it. Attack on world trade center on September 11, 2001, is considered the largest terrorist attack in the world. Osama bin Laden attacked the tallest building in the world’s most powerful country, causing millions of casualties and death of thousands of people.

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Terrorist Attacks in India

India has suffered several terrorist attacks which created fear among the public and caused huge destruction. Here are some of the major terrorist attacks that hit India in the last few years: 1991 – Punjab Killings, 1993 – Bombay Bomb Blasts, RSS Bombing in Chennai, 2000 – Church Bombing, Red Fort Terrorist Attack,2001- Indian Parliament Attack, 2002 – Mumbai Bus Bombing, Attack on Akshardham Temple, 2003 – Mumbai Bombing, 2004 – Dhemaji School Bombing in Assam,2005 – Delhi Bombings, Indian Institute of Science Shooting, 2006 – Varanasi Bombings, Mumbai Train Bombings, Malegaon Bombings, 2007 – Samjhauta Express Bombings, Mecca Masjid Bombing, Hyderabad Bombing, Ajmer Dargah Bombing, 2008 – Jaipur Bombings, Bangalore Serial Blasts, Ahmedabad Bombings, Delhi Bombings, Mumbai Attacks, 2010 – Pune Bombing, Varanasi Bombing.

The recent ones include 2011 – Mumbai Bombing, Delhi Bombing, 2012 – Pune Bombing, 2013 – Hyderabad Blasts, Srinagar Attack, Bodh Gaya Bombings, Patna Bombings, 2014 – Chhattisgarh Attack, Jharkhand Blast, Chennai Train Bombing, Assam Violence, Church Street Bomb Blast, Bangalore, 2015 –  Jammu Attack, Gurdaspur Attack, Pathankot Attack, 2016 – Uri Attack, Baramulla Attack, 2017 – Bhopal Ujjain Passenger Train Bombing, Amarnath Yatra Attack, 2018 Sukma Attack, 2019- Pulwama attack.

Agencies fighting Terrorism in India

Many police, intelligence and military organizations in India have formed special agencies to fight terrorism in the country. Major agencies which fight against terrorism in India are Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Terrorism has become a global threat which needs to be controlled from the initial level. Terrorism cannot be controlled by the law enforcing agencies alone. The people in the world will also have to unite in order to face this growing threat of terrorism.

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Harvard’s Institute of Politics Announces Fall 2024 Resident Fellows

Introduction

CAMBRIDGE, MA - The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School today announced the appointment of six Resident Fellows who will join the IOP for the Fall 2024 semester. The fellows bring diverse experience in politics, elected office, polling, journalism, and economic development to address the challenges facing our country and world today.

"We are thrilled to welcome this Fall's cohort of Resident Fellows to Harvard to engage and collaborate with our students and community, and to get their thoughts and insight in the final few months of this year's historic election. Their diverse experiences will no doubt inspire our students to consider careers in public service and prepare them to provide essential political leadership in the months and years ahead," said IOP Director Setti Warren .

"We are excited to have such a remarkable group of Fellows at the IOP this Fall. They bring varied perspectives on how to best approach some of our country's most consequential challenges, and I am confident our students will gain important insight into the fields of politics, civic engagement, journalism, and more," said Michael Nutter , Chair of the Institute of Politics' Senior Advisory Committee, and former Mayor of Philadelphia.

"We are thrilled to welcome the incredibly accomplished members of the 2024 Fall Fellows Cohort as we begin the fall semester prior to the incredibly important U.S. election. As we close out the 'biggest election year in history,' our world remains in the throes of a major period of democratic backsliding. American voters, including many Harvard students, will once again face the possibility of reactionary backsliding and threats to fundamental rights. Closer to home, we are keenly aware of the threats to free speech on campus. While this semester will bring renewed challenges to and debates concerning those fundamental rights, we are hopeful that study groups will remain a source of vibrant, productive, and gratifying discussions on Harvard's campus. In that spirit, this semester's cohort of Fellows will bring in critical perspectives from the varied worlds of governing, policymaking, polling, reporting, and campaigning to equip students with the tools necessary to create a better tomorrow. We are confident that this cohort of Fellows will help this program to remain a bastion of freedom of speech and civil discourse on Harvard's campus," said Éamon ÓCearúil ‘25 and Summer Tan ‘26 , Co-Chairs of the Fellows and Study Groups Program at the Institute of Politics.

IOP Resident Fellows are fully engaged with the Harvard community. They reside on campus, mentor a cohort of undergraduate students, hold weekly office hours, and lead an eight-week, not-for-credit study group based on their experience and expertise.

Fall 2024 Resident Fellows:

• Betsy Ankney: Former Campaign Manager, Nikki Haley for President
• John Anzalone: One of the nation's top pollsters and strategists, and founder of Impact Research, a public opinion research and consulting firm
• Alejandra Y. Castillo: Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development
• Asa Hutchinson: Former Governor of Arkansas and 2024 Presidential Candidate
• Brett Rosenberg: Former Director for Strategic Planning, National Security Council and Deputy Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, Department of State
• Eugene Scott: Host at Axios Live, and former reporter who has spent two decades covering politics at the local, national and international level, including at the Washington Post and CNN

Brief bios and quotes can be found below. Headshots are available upon request.

Betsy Ankney Ankney is a political strategist with over 15 years of experience on tough campaigns. She has been involved in campaigns and Super PACs at the national and state level and played a role in some of the biggest upsets in Republican politics. She has been an advisor to Ambassador Nikki Haley since 2021, serving as Executive Director for Stand for America PAC and most recently as Campaign Manager for Nikki Haley for President. After starting with zero dollars in the bank and 2% in the polls, the campaign defied the odds, raised $80 million, and Nikki Haley emerged as the strongest challenger to Donald Trump. Ankney served as the Political Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2020 cycle. She advised senate campaigns across the country, working directly with candidates and their campaigns on budgets, messaging, and fundraising. Prior to her work at the NRSC, Ankney managed multiple statewide campaigns, including Bruce Rauner for Governor in Illinois and Ron Johnson for Senate in Wisconsin. For her work on Ron Johnson’s race, she was named “Campaign Manager of the Year” by the American Association of Political Consultants for 2016. Ankney got her start in politics at the 2008 Republican National Convention and served in various roles at the Republican National Committee as well as on multiple campaigns and outside efforts. She serves on the boards of The Campaign School at Yale and The American Association of Political Consultants. She is from Toledo, Ohio and attended Vanderbilt University.

"I am honored to be a part of the fantastic program at the Harvard Institute of Politics. As we enter the final stretch of one of the wildest and most unpredictable election cycles in modern history, I look forward to having conversations in real time about our political process, what to look for, and why it matters." – Betsy Ankney

John Anzalone Anzalone is one of the nation’s top pollsters and messaging strategists. He has spent decades working on some of the toughest political campaigns in modern history and helping private-sector clients navigate complex challenges. He has polled for the past four presidential races, most recently serving as chief pollster for President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. In that role, he helped develop the messaging and strategy that drove paid communications, major policy rollouts, speeches, and convention thematics. He has also polled for the campaigns of President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and has helped elect U.S. senators, governors, and dozens of members of Congress. Anzalone works with governors across the country, including current Governors Gretchen Whitmer (MI) and Roy Cooper (NC). He polls regularly for the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Senate Majority PAC, and AARP. With more than 30 years of experience in message development and strategic execution, he has been called on by key decision-makers, executives, and CEOs to provide counsel in a changing world and marketplace. He has extensive experience using research and data to break down complex subjects into digestible messages that resonate with target audiences. He grew up in St. Joseph, Michigan, and graduated from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is married and has four children, two dogs, and lives in Watercolor, Florida.

"After a 40-year career in politics I am so excited to give back by sharing and mentoring politically active and curious students, but also to have an opportunity to learn from them myself. During the next three months we will be living the 2024 elections together in real time. There is nothing more exciting than that regardless of your political identity." – John Anzalone

Alejandra Y. Castillo The Honorable Alejandra Y. Castillo was nominated by President Biden and sworn in as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development on August 13, 2021, becoming the first women of color to hold this position. Ms. Castillo led the Economic Development Administration (EDA) between August 2021-2024 through an unprecedented moment of growth and opportunity. As the only federal agency focused exclusively on economic development, she guided EDA’s the implementation of over $6.8 billion dollars in federal funding, powering EDA and its mission to make transformational placed-based investments to support inclusive and equitable economic growth across America. Spanning over two decades of public service and non-profit work, she has served in three Presidential administrations --Biden, Obama and Clinton. Her career has also included a drive to shattering glass ceilings and providing inspiration to multiple generations of diverse leaders. Castillo is an active member in various civic and professional organizations, including the Hispanic National Bar Association, the American Constitution Society, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations. Castillo holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook; a M.A. in Public Policy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin; and a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law. A native of Queens, NY., the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic.

"I am excited to join this Fall semester IOP Fellowship class and have the opportunity to engage with students and faculty members across the University. The IOP fellowship presents a great forum to discuss and evaluate the future of U.S. industrial strategy and economic growth in light of the historic federal investments in place-based economic development during the last three years. I am honored to join my colleagues in making this an exciting and informative semester for students." – Alejandra Y. Castillo

Asa Hutchinson Governor Asa Hutchinson is a former Republican candidate for President of the United States. He served as the 46th Governor of the State of Arkansas and in his last election, he was re-elected with 65 percent of the vote, having received more votes than any other Republican candidate for governor in the State’s history. As a candidate for President, Hutchinson distinguished himself as an advocate for balancing the federal budget, energy production and enhanced border security. He also was a clear voice for the GOP to move away from the leadership of Donald Trump. Hutchinson’s time as governor is distinguished by his success in securing over $700 million per year in tax cuts, safeguarding the retirement pay of veterans from state income tax, shrinking the size of state government, creating over 100,000 new jobs and leading a national initiative to increase computer science education. The Governor’s career in public service began when President Ronald Reagan appointed him as the youngest U.S. Attorney in the nation for the Western District of Arkansas. In 1996, he won the first of three consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his third term in Congress, President George W. Bush appointed Governor Hutchinson to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and later as the nation’s first Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Border Protection. He is a former Chairman of the National Governors. He grew up on a small farm near Gravette. He and his wife, Susan, have four children and seven grandchildren. Governor Hutchinson is currently CEO of Hutchinson Group LLC, a security consulting firm.

"After 8 years as Governor it is time to teach and mentor. I am honored to have the opportunity this fall to share my experiences and perspective but to also learn from the students and my colleagues who will also be resident fellows at the IOP. The timing is historic with our democracy facing a critical choice this fall as to the direction of our country." – Asa Hutchinson

Brett Rosenberg Rosenberg is a foreign policy expert who has served in the White House, Department of State, and Senate. During the Biden Administration, Rosenberg was the inaugural Deputy Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, President Biden’s and the G7’s flagship program designed to meet infrastructure needs in low- and middle-income countries. At the White House, Rosenberg served on the National Security Council as Director for Strategic Planning, working on shaping and realizing approaches to issues spanning from international economics to Western Hemisphere engagement, as well as helping to write the National Security Strategy. Prior to her service in the Biden administration, Rosenberg was Associate Director of Policy for National Security Action, where she remains a senior advisor. Rosenberg began her career in Washington as a legislative aide to then-Senator Kamala Harris, where she advised the senator on a range of domestic and economic policy issues. Rosenberg is a Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and her writing has appeared in outlets including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, and McSweeneys. She received her A.B. in History from Harvard College and her PhD (DPhil) in International Relations from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

"What a privilege it is to be part of this incredible community in this incredible moment. I can't wait to learn from the students, faculty, and other fellows as we dive in together to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and the world." – Brett Rosenberg

Eugene Scott Eugene Scott is a host at Axios Live, where he travels the country interviewing political and policy leaders. He was previously a senior political reporter for Axios covering 2024 swing voters and voting rights. An award-winning journalist, Scott has spent two decades covering politics at the local, national and international levels. He was recently a national political reporter at The Washington Post focused on identity politics and the 2022 midterm election. Following the 2020 presidential election, he hosted “The Next Four Years,” then Amazon’s top original podcast. He also contributed to “FOUR HUNDRED SOULS: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019,” which topped the New York Times’ bestseller list. In addition to writing, Scott has regularly provided political analysis on MSNBC, CBS and NPR. Scott was a Washington Correspondent for CNN Politics during the 2016 election. And he began his newspaper career at the Cape Argus in Cape Town, South Africa not long after beginning his journalism career with BET News’ “Teen Summit.” Scott received his master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and his bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media. He is a D.C. native and continues to live in the Nation’s Capital.

"Learning from and with the professionals that visited the IOP during my time on campus was one of the highlights of my time at the Kennedy School. I am eager to help lead students in understanding the press and this country as we navigate the final weeks of arguably the most consequential election of our time." – Eugene Scott

Additional information can be found here .

About the Institute of Politics Fellows Program The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School was established in 1966 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. The Institute’s mission is to unite and engage students, particularly undergraduates, with academics, politicians, activists, and policymakers on a non-partisan basis to inspire them to pursue pathways in politics and public service. The Institute blends the academic with practical politics and offers students the opportunity to engage in current events and to acquire skills and perspectives that will assist in their postgraduate pathways.

The Fellows Program has stood as the cornerstone of the IOP, encouraging student interest in public service and increasing the interaction between the academic and political communities. Through the Fellows Program, the Institute aims to provide students with the opportunity to learn from experienced public servants, the space to engage in civil discourse, and the chance to acquire a more holistic and pragmatic view of our political world.

For more information on the fellowship program, including a full list of former fellows, visit: iop.harvard.edu  

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11 Ways to Teach the 2024 Election With The New York Times

Join our election-related forums, create a multimedia project, monitor misinformation, talk to journalists and more.

By The Learning Network

We don’t blame you if teaching about this presidential election feels tough.

For starters, the news this summer has been remarkable: a felony trial , an assassination attempt , a fateful debate and a new candidate , who, if elected, would make history .

The polls show that the race is neck and neck. The country is deeply polarized. And the electorate often doesn’t even agree on the same set of facts.

And yet, despite — or because of — all of these complicating factors, teenagers are paying attention. Living through history is an invaluable way to learn about democratic processes, and 41 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote this fall.

To help teachers make the most of the learning opportunities this moment presents, we’re offering a range of resources and ideas based on New York Times journalism. Some of these resources prepare students for the election-related Student Conversation Forums we’ll host starting in September. Some encourage them to get involved in this fall’s civics-focused multimedia contest . And some build foundational habits and skills, like following news, understanding the Electoral College and examining the positions of the candidates.

How are you approaching this election in your classroom? Let us know in the comments section. And if you’d like to share your strategies and experiences with classroom conversations about hot-button issues in general, we’re collecting ideas via this short survey . We hope to publish a collection soon of wisdom and practical advice from educators.

Note: We will keep all our election resources in one place and will update them continually. Find the collection here.

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