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The Ten Practices of Just Peacemaking THE ten practices of Just Peacemaking are divided into three groups: cooperative forces, justice, and peacemaking initiatives. Strengthen Cooperative Forces 1. Recognize emerging cooperative forces in the international system, and work with them. Historically, cooperative institutions like the League of Nations have broken down for six reasons that we name. But "these basic obstacles no longer have the same force today. Four trends have so altered the conditions and practices of international relations as to make it possible now, where it was not possible before, to form and sustain voluntary associations for peace and other valuable common purposes that are in fact working. These four trends or forces are the decline in the utility of war; the priority of trade and the economy over war; the strength of international exchanges, communications, transactions, and networks; and the gradual ascendancy of liberal representative democracy and a mixture of welfare-state and laissez-faire market economy. We should act so as to strengthen these trends and the international associations that they make possible. 2. Strengthen the United Nations and international efforts for cooperation and human rights. International relations increasingly involve not only the traditional military-diplomatic arena, but also the modern arena of economic interdependence, where governments are exposed to the forces of a global market they do not control. Additionally there is the growingly important third arena of demands for "people power," or for "citizens' say." The information revolution makes it harder for governments to control people's minds, and popular pressures can now set much of the agenda of foreign policies. States float in a sea of forces from outside their borders or from among their people. Acting alone, states cannot solve problems of trade, debt, interest rates; of pollution, ozone depletion, acid rain, depletion of fish stocks, global warming; of migrations and refugees seeking asylum; of military security when weapons rapidly penetrate borders. Therefore, as we approach the turning of the centuries, collective action is increasingly necessary. U.S. citizens should press their government to pay its dues to the United Nations, and to act in small and large crises in ways that strengthen the effectiveness of the United Nations, of regional organizations, and of multilateral peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building. Many multilateral practices are building effectiveness to resolve conflicts, to monitor, nurture, and even enforce truces and replace violent conflict with beginning cooperation. They are organizing to meet human needs for food, hygiene, medicine, education, and economic interaction. | Advance Justice For All | Taking Peacemaking Initiatives | The Ten Practices of Just Peacemaking main page | Larry Rasmussen's speech on "Just Peacemaking" | Peace Matters home |