Perspective

Peace by Peaceful Means - Plans for a Global Nonviolent Peace Force

By David Hartsough and Mel Duncan

Wars have changed dramatically over the past century. In many of today's conflicts, civilians have become the primary targets. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has observed, "In the First World War roughly 90 percent of those killed were soldiers. . . . It is now conventional to put the proportion of civilian casualties somewhere in the region of 75 percent."

David Hartsough

Children are increasingly targeted. Over two million children have died as the result of war, and more than three times as many have been permanently disabled or seriously wounded during the last decade.

In 1999, 40 armed conflicts raged in 36 countries. Most wars today are civil wars, fueled by power grabs, ethnic or religious hatred, poverty, external demand for precious resources and a pernicious arms trade.

Increasingly, governmental organizations are pursuing ways to intervene in these conflicts to save human lives. Humanitarian intervention is advocated even when it challenges the principle of national sovereignty. Secretary-General Annan asserts, "State frontiers should no longer be seen as a watertight protection for war criminals or mass murderers." While international leaders call for a human-centered approach to security, they turn to armed forces to fulfill this role.

A promising alternative is steadily emerging, a Global Nonviolent Peace Force (GNPF). From recommendations made at the Hague Appeal for Peace in May of 1999, a GNPF is being developed with significant input from religious leaders, grassroots peace, justice and human rights activists, scholars, government officials and military personnel.

The mission is to facilitate the creation of a trained international civilian nonviolent peace force. The Peace Force will be sent to conflict areas to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue and seek peaceful resolution.


Goals of the Global Nonviolent Peace Force:

The concept, of course, is not new. It builds on a growing legacy of nonviolent intervention. M. K. Gandhi was working on the Shanti Sena (Peace Army) when he was assassinated. Over the last 20 years remarkable developments in international nonviolent peacemaking have been forged. Peace Brigades International (PBI), Witness for Peace, Balkan Peace Teams, Christian Peacemaker Teams and others have saved lives and created an impressive experiential base.

For example, in the mid-1980s, a small PBI presence in Guatemala, whose "protective accompaniment" deterred the assassination of key human rights workers and supported the creation of a small "space for peace" in that embattled society, contributed greatly to the subsequent re-emergence of a democratic society and the peace process.

At the same time U.S.-backed insurgents were trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, operating from bases in Honduras to attack Nicaraguan villages and fields. Witness for Peace began sending delegations to document the "low-intensity conflict" and help stop the war. Over the next seven years, thousands of international volunteers visited and stayed in Nicaraguan villages to share the lives of local peasants who were being targeted by the insurgents. Their presence helped stop the killing--no village was attacked while the internationals were present.

These episodes gave a glimpse of the potential for nonviolent intervention.

The Global Nonviolent Peace Force represents an alternative to massive military intervention that many people hope for but that does not yet exist.


Role of the Peace Force

The Peace Force will be deployed at the invitation of local organizations or nonviolent movements working for peaceful change/resolution. Attempts will be made to gain approval from all sides involved in the conflict. Strong preference will be given to early intervention. As one woman from Kosovo said at the Hague Conference, "Peace workers need to be in the right place at the right time before violence escalates. Otherwise, we are just counting our mistakes."

Criteria for possible involvement would include:

Recruitment

The Peace Force will be built to a level of 2,000 active members, 4,000 reserves and 5,000 supporters by the year 2010. Members will be from different ethnic, faith and age backgrounds. All members will be committed to nonviolence and disciplined, effective action while participating in a Peace Force mission. All active members will be compensated. Highly visible participants such as Nobel Peace Prize laureates, religious leaders and former government leaders will also be recruited for specific situations.

Mass nonviolent demonstration calling for an end to oppression in Kosovo (March 1998)

Members could be recruited from a variety of walks of life, including former peace team members, people with military and law enforcement experience, members of religious and spiritual communities, veterans of civil rights, labor, antiwar, women's and environmental movements and community mediators.


Training

Complex conflict situations require highly competent people. Active members of the Peace Force will take part in a two-month general training on the history and theory of nonviolence, nonviolent peacemaking, cultural sensitivity, listening, mediation skills and conflict transformation.

A more specific training will follow focusing on the local area of deployment including language, culture, analysis of the conflict and discussion of appropriate means of peaceful engagement.


Deployment

A clear mandate with a specific strategy and precise objectives tailored to the conflict area will be established before deployment. Strategies and tactics will be designed to lessen violence or its potential, create space for peaceful and just resolution, and empower local peace and human rights activists.

Methods of intervention could include:

In all cases, Peace Force missions will turn over their work to local groups as soon as feasible and leave the area as soon as the reduction of tensions permits.


Media and Communications

Good media and public relations will be vital. The Global Nonviolent Peace Force will need to be creative in documenting and communicating the hope and promise of nonviolent peacemaking to a world that can be cynical and skeptical.

A skilled research team is now reviewing best practices, analyzing conflict situations where the Peace Force can make an important contribution, cataloguing logistical requirements and developing an effective and efficient organizational model.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama heads an impressive list of over 200 endorsers, including fellow Nobel laureates, from six continents.

During 2001 and 2002 the GNPF will focus on continuing to build strategic relationships, further developing the proposal, carrying out research and planning, building its organizational capacity and recruiting and training peaceworkers. The GNPF hopes to be ready to go into operation in 2003. The first year of operations will cost $8 million (what the world spends on the military every four minutes).

Feedback, contributions and volunteers are currently sought. See the full proposal at www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org, or contact Peaceworkers at 721 Shrader St., San Francisco, CA 94117, U.S.A., or at peaceworkers@igc.org.

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