Building Peace from the Inside Out
A Letter from Dorothy J. Maver, Ph.D., executive director of The Peace Alliance and The Peace Foundation
For over a decade, Dorothy Maver has been a recognized leader in creating life-serving infrastructures in the U.S. and around the world. As Nonviolent Communication is becoming a key tool supporting this work, she describes how building peace must start from the inside out.

Fundamentally, peace on all levels is rooted in the recognition that the world is interconnected and everything influences, and is influenced by, the whole. You are at the heart of social change, and your every thought, word and action makes a difference. Indeed, my work at the Peace Alliance, and through the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace is grounded in the belief that peaceful infrastructures and governments learn to transform the “them and us” mentality to build a culture and practice of peace with nonviolence and cooperation as organizing principles. In this vein, Nonviolent Communication can play a critical role for building and maintaining the life affirming, empathic relations that are the core to effective social change. Read Full Story >

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Key Facts About the NVC Process, The 4-Part NVC Process, Feelings and Needs We All Have, Benefits of NVC

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Building Peace from the Inside Out,
continued . . .

Indeed, the Peace Alliance, in its cooperative partnership with The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), recognizes the importance of Nonviolent Communication in our campaign to establish a U.S. Department of Peace (US DOP). NVC provides an powerful tool for building bridges with people who do not necessarily agree with us; to create a space of common needs and empathic connection.  Currently, we offer NVC coaching to US DOP campaign activists throughout the U.S. via monthly teleconference calls and workshops at regional conferences.

While ultimately peace begins with the establishment of life-serving personal relations, it is also essential that our systems of foreign policy, education, politics, business, health, and social welfare be united in seeking, teaching, and living at the highest level of human evolution. The idea of a cabinet-level department of peace is to have a place in government that will facilitate the research, articulation, funding and implementation of promising practices for reduction, resolution and prevention of violence while making peace an organizing principle in our society.

Already, peace building and conflict transformation technologies, including NVC, are being developed and practiced around the world in a wide range of conflict situations within and between countries.

For example, the Peace Alliance Foundation has just issued a white paper called “Hope on the Horizon: Making Cents of Peace,” providing a snapshot of the current state of violence in the United States and a sampling of proven, statistically verifiable programs that successfully prevent and reduce violence. [View or download a PDF of this white paper now] The paper proclaims that the good news in the United States is that Americans have found innovative and resourceful ways to address violence and its root causes. What is missing is an infrastructure to coordinate and give these programs more visibility and viability, allocate them consistent funding resources, and to make them a matter of local, state, and national priority.

Internationally, the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace support grassroots efforts in countries working to establish structures of peace in their governments. The Global Alliance issues statements in response to brewing international crises calling for a “fresh approach” so as to meet the fundamental needs of all humanity for security, mutual respect and justice. At our June 2006 Global Summit in Victoria B.C., Miki Kashtan, a CNVC certified trainer, facilitated a session enhancing our capacity to communicate with one another. She brought forth the realization that we must become our own leaders — taking responsibility for transformation and communication in our own lives in order to help bring about the change we are calling forth in the world.

I recently participated in a conference in The Hague sponsored by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, where civil society organizations from all regions of the world gathered with government and donor foundations to report on where we are and where we are going with our mutual cooperation in the field of peace building and conflict prevention. The intention is clear and the design is in place. In some countries there already exist structures that focus on peace building. However, it is not yet mapped out how civil society partners with government in a way that puts a focus on peace and conflict resolution by nonviolent means.

There is a recognition that in order to help bring about this shift in our culture we must educate ourselves and help create the necessary infrastructure for peace — across the board and up and down the line in our hearts, in our homes, in our communities, and in the world. It begins with each one of us.

It is time. Together we are answering the call.

In the Spirit of Peace,
Dorothy J. Maver

Dorothy J. Maver, Ph.D. is Executive Director of The Peace Alliance and The Peace Alliance Foundation, advocating for the establishment a U.S. Department of Peace. Learn more at http://www.ThePeaceAlliance.org. She is also on the steering committee for the Global Alliance for Ministries and Department of Peace. Learn more at www.mfp-dop.org