Culture of Peace-Culture of War

The definition of a Culture of Peace in Table 1 was developed by the United Nations.

Table 1Culture of PeaceCulture of WarTransforming values, attitudes and behaviours based on violence to those which promote peace and nonviolence;Retaining violence as one of the accepted ways of settling disputes, within and between nations, and promoting it through violence in the media and entertainment; fomenting war, for example by supplying armaments to third parties;empowering people at all levels with skills of dialogue mediation and peacebuilding;retaining top-down structures that impose the wishes of the hierarchy;democratic participation of people in decision making;decision making essentially in cabinet or by small cliques;equal representation of women in decision making at all levels;perpetuating male dominance, especially at the highest decision making levels;the political and economic empowerment of women;preserving male political and economic predominance;the free flow of information and transparency and accountability of governing structures;maintaining secrecy as an essential tool of the power structure;the elimination of poverty and sharp inequalities within and between nations;protecting the wealth and power of the rich without regard to the consequences;the promotion of sustainable human development for all;pursuing dominance through competition backed up by military might;the preservation of the planet and all its species;exploitation of the planet’s resources so as to maintain dominance;advancing understanding, tolerance and respect of diversity among all peoples.accentuating cultural, racial or class difference so as to target others as the enemy;working toward arms control and the elimination of armamentsmaintaining an arms industry in a position of economic privilege.