Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has proposed the creation of a new federal Department of Peace that would coordinate efforts to cultivate peace at every level of government and society.
The new department would be responsible for promoting justice, expanding human rights, addressing white supremacy, and strengthening nonmilitary means of peacemaking, among other things.
“I believe our country’s way of dealing with security issues is increasingly obsolete,” said Williamson, the only announced contender for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. “We have the finest military force in the world, however, we can no longer rely on force alone to rid ourselves of international enemies.”
Its mission would be to hold peace as an organizing principle, develop new structures of nonviolent dispute resolution, and proactively promote national and international conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution.
The U.S. Department of Peace would also establish a Peace Academy that would provide a 4-year concentration in peace education, modeled after the military service academies. Graduates would be required to serve five years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution.
The Secretary of Peace would serve as a member of the National Security Council and would coordinate with all Cabinet agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Justice, and State, as well as the new Department of Children and Youth. Initial funding for the department would come from the consolidation of existing peace-building and violence-reducing efforts within the federal government.
Williamson argues that peace-building is preferable to and less costly than war, and that the United States should be investing more in proven powers of peace-building, such as dialogue, mediation, conflict resolution, economic and social development, restorative justice, public health approaches to violence prevention, trauma-informed systems of care, and social and emotional learning in schools. She notes that the economic impact of violence on the global economy was nearly $14.4 trillion in 2019, or 10.5 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), and that the United States spends more on its military than the next nine largest militaries in the world.
Domestically, Williamson argues that the need for a coordinated effort to end violence in the country is greater than ever. One hundred Americans die of gun violence every day, and the United States has more gun violence in its cities than any other industrialized country. She notes that Americans are more likely to die every year from gun violence than they are to die in a war and that the country has more deaths of children and teachers from school shootings than any other country in the world.
The U.S. Department of Peace would work to provide much-needed assistance to efforts by city, county, and state governments in coordinating existing programs and developing new programs based on best practices nationally. It would teach violence prevention and conflict resolution in schools, work to prevent armed conflict, and address the epidemic of gun violence.
Williamson believes that the U.S. Department of Peace could save taxpayers an enormous amount of money in the long run by avoiding costly wars abroad and reducing violence in the United States. She argues that the key funding question for the department is simply a matter of changing where the money goes, with a renewed focus on peace-building, humanitarian aid, and development as a key to national security.
In summary, Williamson proposes the creation of a new federal Department of Peace that would coordinate efforts to cultivate peace at every level of government and society.
The department would promote justice, expand human rights, address white supremacy, and strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking. Its mission would be to hold peace as an organizing principle, develop new structures of nonviolent dispute resolution, and proactively promote national and international conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution.
The department would establish a Peace Academy that would provide a 4-year concentration in peace education, and the Secretary of Peace would serve as a member of the National Security Council and coordinate with all Cabinet agencies.
Funding for the department would come from the consolidation of existing peace-building and violence-reducing efforts within the federal government. Williamson believes that peace-building is preferable to
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