UNESCO, "From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace"

“People working for a culture must become a part of the change they want to create. In other words, people working for a culture of peace must manifest the values they wish to create in a wider society.” – Keith D. Suter

“From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace” is a collection of essays from prominent members of the international peace community, which have been culled and published by UNESCO. UNESCO was founded in 1946 as an agency of the United Nations to “build peace in the minds of men” through “education, social and natural science, culture and communication,” a mandate which is not overlooked in this work. Major threads of this anthology include a definition of what both the term “culture” and the term “peace” mean in the present day, conceptualizations of potential cultures of peace, and discussions regarding what assets (e.g. religion, education, media, etc.) are available to build a culture of peace on a global scale. From these essays, one gets a holistic look at a topic which is often misunderstood or at least not fully conceptualized. Throughout the 20th century, peace has been interpreted in various ways and has been continually developed from a more narrow negative definition (e.g. the absence of war) to the positive and holistic definition (e.g. structural non-violence) that peace has come to encompasses today.

Links:
UNESCO
Culture of Peace Website

Citation Information:
UNESCO Publishing. (1996). From a culture of violence to a culture of peace. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.