World Beyond War

World Beyond War (WBW) is a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace.
We aim of this NGO is to create awareness of popular support for ending war and to further develop that support. Members of WBW work to advance the idea of not just preventing any particular war but abolishing the entire institution.

They strive to replace a culture of war with one of peace in which nonviolent means of conflict resolution take the place of bloodshed.
While public opinion has moved against war, WBW intends to seize this moment to crystallize that opinion into a movement that

• spreads awareness that war can be ended,
• its ending is hugely popular,
• war should be ended as it endangers rather than protects — and harms rather than benefits — and
• there are steps we can and must take to move toward war’s reduction and abolition.

War is not ending on its own.

War is being confronted by popular resistance. But too often that resistance takes the form of

• denouncing one war as unacceptable (in contrast to theoretical good wars), or
• opposing a war because it leaves a military ill-prepared for other wars, or
• rejecting a weapon or a tactic as less proper than others, or opposing wasteful military spending in favor of greater efficiency (as if the entire enterprise were not an economic waste and a moral abomination).

WBWs goal is to support steps away from war and to spread understanding of them as just that — steps in the direction of war’s elimination.

Peace is not free.

WBW needs your support if we are to reach all of those who would like to be with us or who can be persuaded to stand with us.
We are building something truly international, connecting people and organizations, and adding support to antiwar endeavors of all kinds around the world. This is a global campaign of

• education,
• lobbying, and
• nonviolent direct action.

Here are quotes from some people involved:
Here are graphics with more quotes from people involved and voices of wisdom from the past.

Here’s WBWs speakers bureau.

Please

• consider signing on too, if you haven’t already. And
• add your own quote when you do!
• You can write to us at World Beyond War, P.O. Box 1484, Charlottesville VA 22902 USA or contact us here.
• If you want to support WBW by sending donations (tax-deductible in the U.S.).
  Make the check out to World Beyond War/AFGJ. Send donations to: AFGJ 225 E. 26th St. #1, Tucson, AZ 85713, USA, or donate online here using credit card.
  THANK YOU!

World Beyond War is run by committees, which are constantly looking for new members. Please let us know if you’d like to join.

Coordinating Committee currently includes:
Leah Bolger, Chair — U.S.
Heinrich Buecker — Germany
David Swanson — U.S.
Kent Shifferd — U.S.
Alice Slater — U.S.
Odile Hugonot Haber — U.S.
Diani Baretto — Germany
Agneta Norberg — Sweden
Robert Fantina — Canada
Dave Webb — U.K.
Ellen Thomas — U.S.
Dianna Carlson — U.S.
Peter Ongera — South Sudan
Barry Sweeney — Ireland

Executive Committee currently includes:
Leah Bolger
David Swanson

Cofounders:
David Hartsough
David Swanson

STAFF:
Director:
David Swanson

Organizer:
Mary Dean [coming Jan 16, 2017]

Education Coordinator:
Tony Jenkins

World Beyond War Advisory Board includes:

• Mairead Maguire
• Kathy Kelly
• Kevin Zeese
• Gar Smith
• Maria Santelli
• Hakim
• Gareth Porter
• Ann Wright
• Medea Benjamin
• Johan Galtung
• David Hartsough
• John Vechey
• Patrick Hiller

World Beyond War is adding volunteer coordinators around the world, called Country Coordinators

“What I appreciate most about World Beyond War is that it does not ruminate on the pluses and minuses of each military intervention but takes a clear, principled, courageous and unequivocal stand that war is bad, period, and that our job as global citizens is stop all ongoing wars and prevent new ones. This breaks through the fog of ‘humanitarian interventions’ and ‘just wars’ to paint a vision of how we must evolve as a civilization if we are to survive, and that is, precisely, a world beyond war. Bravo!” —Medea Benjamin

Declaration of Peace – organization

We understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. We commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.

http://worldbeyondwar.org/organization/

11.01.2017

World Beyond War in the United States
World Beyond War (WBW) in the United States works toward an end to all war, including war by the world’s leading war maker, the U.S. government.

Please sign this:
I understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.

Country coordinator is David Swanson

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Swanson is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Become a World Beyond War Volunteer Country Coordinator

• Would you be willing to consider becoming a World Beyond War Coordinator for your country?

  This is an easy, part-time, and volunteer position. But it is critical to advancing the cause of ending all war.
  In cases where you find it works best, there can be more than one Coordinator, and in all cases we can identify additional volunteers to help. But we only want you to say yes if you’re truly serious about doing this.
  World Beyond War is unique because it unites the efforts of people and organizations who want to end ALL war in ALL countries. World Beyond War recognizes that today’s communication technology and social media give us the ability to do something that has never been done before: raise our voices WORLDWIDE to spread support for war abolition activism.

Here is a brief description of the responsibilities of the position:
1. Be thoroughly familiar with World Beyond War and be able to comfortably tell people about the organization and its work.
2. Maintain communication with the individuals and organizations in your country who have signed the World Beyond War Declaration of Peace, and serve as a liaison to the World Beyond War coordinating committee. (We can forward emails from you to all signers, or provide you with contact information for specific signers.)
3. Periodically translate messages from English into your native language to pass on, and translate news on antiwar activism from your language to English for the WBW website. (And assist with translation as we set up a webpage for your country, including a form through which people can contact you.)
4. Help encourage more people in your country to sign the declaration of peace, find people in your country (including yourself perhaps?) to join the speakers bureau or the coordinating committee, and help plan events in your country.
5. When WBW decides to organize a global campaign to achieve a specific goal (on the way to ending all war), you help organize efforts in your country toward that end. (Decisions on specific campaigns will be made with input from you and other representatives of groups around the world.)

Here are some ways that World Beyond War can help your organizing:

1.We can create a webpage at WorldBeyondWar.org including links to your local organizations and activities, and including a form through which people (but not spammers) can email you.
2. We can list your events on the World Beyond War website.
3. We can forward your communications to an ever-growing list of people and organizations in your country, and can target these based on how people have volunteered to help.
4. We can connect you with individuals and organizations around the world working on similar campaigns to yours, to share expertise and activism. (If you’re opposing a U.S. military base or action, for example, it can help to work with people in the U.S. and in other countries.)
5. We can share your news with a wider global audience through our email, website, and social media.
Thank you again for your support of World Beyond War. Please let us know if you have any questions about the responsibilities outlined above.

Contact us at info AT worldbeyondwar DOT org

Your Part of the World
Afghanistan
Canada
Deutschland
Finland
Ghana
Ireland
Italia
Mandarin
Mexico
Nigeria
Puerto Rico
South Sudan
Sweden
Tunisia
United States
In the UK?

Join the Movement for the Abolition of War.

Find great organizations near you.

If you don’t see your country listed here, volunteer to be a Country Coordinator.

Create or Make Your Existing Organization a World Beyond War Chapter / Affiliate
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/create-or-make-your-existing-organization-a-world-beyond-war-chapter-affiliate

You can make your existing local organization a chapter/affiliate of World Beyond War, or begin to create (with our help) a brand new local World Beyond War organization. In either case we will work with you, link to you, promote your activities, provide you with resources, and ask for your input. In either case we are talking about an organization ready to work with us on ending war. To simply endorse ending war without becoming an affiliate, your organization or business can sign here.

Spring Week of Actions and Events
http://worldbeyondwar.org/spring-week-actions-events/
We’re planning to organize a week (a bit more in fact) of events and actions around the globe between March 27 and April 6 this year. It’s not too soon to start planning, and we can help.
March 27 is the opening of a UN meeting on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. April 4 is 50 years since Martin Luther King’s speech against war, and April 6 is 100 years since the United States entered the first world war. This week is also the start of an anti-nuclear campaign in Germany, and leads into the Keeping Space for Peace conference and the likely date of the Global Day of Action against Military Spending.
Here are some new resources for events that we hope will be helpful:
Check out the speakers in our speakers bureau. You may want to invite one or more of them to speak — in person or via live or recorded video. We can make something work!

Numerous successful events have already been held that have screened some of our recently recorded videos, such as these:
• Money Video.
• No War 2016 Videos.
• A Soldier’s Life.
• The End of War (music video).
We can also work with you to help prepare you to make a World Beyond War presentation yourself! Are you or would you like to be a public speaker? Contact us for assistance!
Speaking about ending war can be quite easy, informative, and entertaining if you use one of these power point or prezi slide presentations:
• A Mapping War and Peace Prezi.
• WBW Prezi (Prepare for your event with this Prezi using these resources: the prezi in a PDF and in-depth information to present with the prezi: PDF.)
• A Global Security System Power Point (Ideal to accompany an event focused on this book, but can also stand on its own.)
• Is Peace Possible? Power Point by Russ Faure-Brac. (Also in older version of Power Point.)
• Psychopathy and Propaganda Power Point by Coleen Rowley. (Also in older version of Power Point.)

How an event can build a movement:
Use flyers, sign-up cards, sign-up sheets. You can let every person at your event sign the peace pledge and indicate how they’d like to be involved. You can use your sign-up sheets to build your local email list and to build World Beyond War’s — Just type the info in on the peace pledge page or into a spread sheet that you email to WBW, or photograph the sheets and email us that, or mail hardcopies to World Beyond War, PO Box 1484, Charlottesville VA 22902, USA.

How an event can raise funds for your local group and/or World Beyond War:

Wear sky blue scarves and bracelets.

Contact WBW about getting a supply of

1. scarves and/or buttons
2. and/org books to use for raising funds for WBW.
3. And collect donations.
4. You can also buy a supply of shirts, stickers, cups, etc. and resell them at cost or for profit.
5. At WwW you find a sign you can modify and use that offers people buttons, scarves, and books for various levels of donations.
   And you can find a form for keeping track of people who need to have free books mailed to them by WBW.
   and receipts for people who make donations to WBW and request a receipt.
6. Get in touch with WBW and we’ll help you plan your event.
   Peace,

David Swanson
World Beyond War Director

“A Global Security System: An Alternative to War” – 2016 Edition Now Available
http://worldbeyondwar.org/alternative/
“You say you’re against war, but what’s the alternative?”

 

World Beyond War is pleased to provide the 2016 edition of the book that everyone has been asking for: A Global Security System: An Alternative to War. It describes the “hardware” of creating a peace system, and the “software” — the values and concepts — necessary to operate a peace system and the means to spread these globally.

Key sections include:
* Why is an Alternative Global Security System both Desirable and Necessary?
* Why we Think a Peace System is Possible
* Common Security
* Demilitarizing Security
* Managing International and Civil Conflicts
* International Non-government Organizations: The Role of Global Civil Society
* Creating a Culture of Peace
* Accelerating The Transition To An Alternative Security System
This report is based on the work of many experts in international relations and peace studies and on the experience of many activists. It is intended to be an evolving plan as we gain more and more experience. The historic end of war is now possible if we muster the will to act and so save ourselves and the planet from ever greater catastrophe. World Beyond War firmly believes that we can do this.
“What a treasure. It is so well written and conceptualized. The beautiful text and design immediately captured the attention and imagination of my 90 graduate and undergraduate students. Visually and substantively, the clarity of the book appeals to young people in a way textbooks have not.” —Barbara Wien, American University
You can obtain A Global Security System: An Alternative to War in multiple formats:

PRINT EDITION of A Global Security System: An Alternative to War
Available at your local bookstore or any online bookseller. The distributor is Ingram. The ISBN is 978-0-9980859-1-3. Buy online at Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.
Or buy in bulk for a discount here.
Read A Global Security System: An Alternative to War Free Online here.
View or download full PDF version.
http://warisacrime.org/downloads/alternative2016.pdf
First Edition from 2015 is here in multiple formats.
CREDITS:
The 2016 edition was improved and expanded by World Beyond War staff and Coordinating Committee members, led by Patrick Hiller, with input from Russ Faure-Brac, Alice Slater, Mel Duncan, Colin Archer, John Horgan, David Hartsough, Leah Bolger, Robert Irwin, Joe Scarry, Mary DeCamp, Susan Lain Harris, Catherine Mullaugh, Margaret Pecoraro, Jewell Starsinger, Benjamin Urmston, Ronald Glossop, Robert Burrowes, Linda Swanson.
The original 2015 edition was the work of the World Beyond War Strategy Committee with input from the Coordinating Committee. All active members of those committees were involved and get credit, along with allies consulted and the work of all those drawn from and cited in the book. Kent Shifferd was the lead author. Also involved were Alice Slater, Bob Irwin, David Hartsough, Patrick Hiller, Paloma Ayala Vela, David Swanson, Joe Scarry.
Patrick Hiller did final editing in 2015 and 2016.
Paloma Ayala Vela did layout in 2015 and 2016.
Joe Scarry did web-design and publication in 2015.

The Movement for the Abolition of War
http://www.abolishwar.org.uk/
War is not inevitable.
The Movement for the Abolition of War aims to:
• Spread the belief that abolishing war is both desirable and possible
• Raise awareness of the alternatives to war for resolving national and international disputes
• Develop materials and strategies to educate us all, from school children to those in government
“If the majority of human beings do not want wars, but at the same time believe that it is impossible to stop them, then the first change we must bring about is in our hands. We must change the idea that “it is not possible” because it is only what we believe about reality that prevents us from transforming it”.
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1997

Reports and briefings
http://www.abolishwar.org.uk/reports-and-briefings.html

This section contains information about different aspects of war and peace, and will help your campaigning. It is frequently added to and updated. The more we can share our knowledge and educate each other, the easier it will be to inform and educate others about the possibility of eradicating war.

Armed Drones and International Law
In June 2011 the Oxford Research Group produced a discussion paper on the legal obligations governing the use of armed drones. You can read the press release and download the paper here

An article by Lesley Docksey of MAW on this and some of the other legal issues surrounding these weapons can be read here.
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The Barcelona Report
The EU’s Barcelona Report – ‚A Human Security Doctrine for Europe‚ – from the Centre for the Study of Global Governance was published in 2004. Read it here.

See Christine Titmus’s comments: ‚A building-block towards the abolition of war‘
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Britain’s Child Soldiers
Catch 16-22 Recruitment and retention of minors in the British armed forces

We think of child soldiers as being a problem in places like the Congo. But „child soldiers“ include all those under the age of 18. And under those terms we enlist them in Britain too. This report by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers highlights all too clearly another area for antiwar campaigners to inform themselves on.
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Challenge Militarism

A publication from Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom

„Whilst military capacity is exposed every day to be a terminally ineffective method of assuring security given the nature of modern threats, militaries the world over consume ever-increasing amounts of the world’s human and economic resources. Despite this realization, we keep spending more money on more weapons – and by doing so invest in brutal and destructive conflicts. This publication will provide an insight to the misguided nature of prevailing priorities with regard to security demonstrating their real costs and consequences.“
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Climate and Conflict – Chaos or Co-Operation?
Our earth’s environmental crisis will almost certainly be the driver of any future wars – directly or indirectly.

The speaker at our AGM in 2008, Dr Stuart Parkinson, sets the scene with his presentation ‚Climate Change and Military Conflict‘.

He is the Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, whose website (www.sgr.org.uk) contains a wide range of material you may find useful in addressing this issue.
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Opposing World War One: Courage and Conscience
An information briefing about conscientious objection and peace activism in the First World War.
Published 2013 by Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pax Christi, Peace Pledge Union, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
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Making War History – Bruce Kent
“Making Poverty History” must also mean making war history. World annual military expenditure is again creeping up to the 1 trillion dollar mark …. [read more]
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National Security Strategies
In recent years, the UK Government has published its first ‚National Security Strategy‘ and also a ‚Strategic Defence and Security Review‘ (2010) – the first since 1998.

The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom (2008)
‚The aim of this first National Security Strategy is to set out how we will address and manage this diverse though interconnected set of security challenges and underlying drivers, both immediately and in the longer term, to safeguard the nation, its citizens, our prosperity and our way of life.‘

‚Providing security for the nation and for its citizens remains the most important responsibility of government.‘ This essential document, presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister, explains how our leaders intended to do this.

National Security Strategy – A Strong Britain in an Age of Uncertainty (2010)

„Today, Britain faces a different and more complex range of threats from a myriad of sources. Terrorism, cyber attack, unconventional attacks using chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, as well as large scale accidents or natural hazards – any one could do grave damage to our country.

These new threats can emanate from states, but also from non state actors: terrorists, home-grown or overseas; insurgents; or criminals. The security of our energy supplies increasingly depends on fossil fuels located in some of the most unstable parts of the planet. Nuclear proliferation is a growing danger. Our security is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and its impact on food and water supply. So the concept of national security in 2010 is very different to what it was ten or twenty, let alone fifty or a hundred years ago.“
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Network for Peace
Network for Peace AGM 2013 AGM report, with reports of the talks by Sam Walton, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, and Emma Sangster, Forces Watch on ‚Marching orders for the military ethos: a culture of peace vs a culture of war‘ – How and why the government is planning to increase military influence in our schools, and society as a whole.
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Seville Statement on Violence
„We, the undersigned scholars from around the world and from relevant sciences, have met and arrived at the following Statement on Violence. In it, we challenge a number of alleged biological findings that have been used, even by some in our disciplines, to justify violence and war…“ Read more
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Shared Responsibilities: a national security strategy for the UK
At the end of June 2009 the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) published the final report of their Commission on National Security for the 21st Century – Shared Responsibilities: a national security strategy for the UK. It makes for some interesting reading.

Here is the Summary with the Commission’s Recommendations.

A copy of the full report can be obtained from ippr
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War is not inevitable
In 2010, the Bristish Pugwash Group published a statement in which three distinguished scientists argue that „War is not inevitable: aggressiveness can be tamed“

British Pugwash is the UK arm of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international network of scientists and others concerned about the social impact of science, with particular emphasis on abolishing weapons of mass destruction and war. Their website www.britishpugwash.org is well worth a visit.

Contact The Movement for the Abolition of War
By Post:
Movement for the Abolition of War
11 Venetia Road
London N4 1EJ

mailto: info@abolishwar.org.uk

Wir vertreten die Bewegung ‘World Beyond War’ in Deutschland!
http://worldbeyondwar.org/deutschland/
Heinrich Buecker ist der WBW Landeskoordinator in Deutschland.
World Beyond War – Eine Welt jenseits von Krieg

Grundsatzerklärung:
“Wir verstehen, dass Kriege und Militarismus uns weniger sicher machen anstatt uns zu schützen, dass sie Erwachsene und Kinder töten, verletzen und traumatisieren, die natürliche Umwelt schwer schädigen, Bürgerrechte erodieren, unseren Volkswirtschaften schaden und Ressourcen von lebensbejahenden Aktivitäten abziehen. Wir verpflichten uns dazu, uns für gewaltfreie Bemühungen zu engagieren und diese zu unterstützen, mit dem Ziel, alle Kriege und Kriegsvorbereitungen zu beenden und einen nachhaltigen und gerechten Frieden zu schaffen.”

Cancel the F-35
https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12514
A petition to the United States Congress and the governments of Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, and Canada from the world and from the people of Burlington, Vermont, and Fairbanks, Alaska, where the F-35 is to be based. Initiated by Vermont Stop the F35 Coalition, Save Our Skies Vermont, Western Maine Matters, Alaska Peace Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks Peace Club, North Star Chapter 146 Veterans For Peace, World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, Code Pink, Ben Cohen. Supported by: Centro Documentazione Manifesto Pacifista Internazionale, International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Nej tak til nye kampfly (in Denmark), Peaceful Skies Coalition (in Santa Fe, NM), Straits Area Concerned Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment (in Michigan).

RootsAction
An Independent Initiative
http://www.rootsaction.org/index.php

We need a fresh approach to defend the public interest. Our country faces a far-right Republican Party regime that is largely a subsidiary of corporate America, and a Democratic Party whose leadership is enmeshed with corporate power.
RootsAction is an online initiative dedicated to galvanizing people who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection — and defunding endless wars.
We will not be silent as Congress and the president continue to squander billions of dollars on foreign wars, causing destruction and hatred overseas while failing to meet the needs of the vast majority of people in our country.
We will not stand by as people lose their jobs and homes due to Wall Street schemes abetted by both major parties.
We will take action — independent of both party leaderships.
That’s why RootsAction has been strongly endorsed by such respected, independent-minded progressives as Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.
When progressives have fallen into making excuses for corporate-approved “reforms,” they’ve come across as defenders of an untenable status quo — and helped corporate-funded „populists“ of the right wing to masquerade as the agents of change.
RootsAction will mobilize behind policies that actually address the immense economic, social and environmental problems facing our country. The goal is to organize people who are already active into an independent political force, while reaching out in a genuinely populist voice to those who are not committed progressives. This is crucial for defeating the corporate-financed and media-fueled right wing, which so deftly utilizes fear, myth and outright lies.
RootsAction pledges to resist the corporatist policies of Republican leaders and cohorts at every turn, while confronting the Democratic Party’s reflex of giving ground to extremist proposals in the name of “bipartisanship.”
One of the most heartening recent developments in our country is the rise of independent media that reach millions each day with reporting that exposes not just threats from the extreme right, but also vacillation and corruption among Democrats. These millions represent a base of informed, active Americans that RootsAction seeks to empower and mobilize.
Corporate power over both major parties is afflicting and poisoning the body politic. Genuine democracy is the antidote.
RootsAction is open to all those who seek a more just and peaceful world; contact us with your ideas for issues we should address and actions we should take.