Global Action to Prevent War

Global Action to Prevent War is a coalition-building campaign in 53 countries which aims to strengthen diverse efforts for peace and disarmament by bringing them together. Our program statement grounds the goal of conflict prevention in specific integrated phases over a three to four-decade period and demonstrates in a practical and concrete way that we can move from an international system based on conflict and power relations to one based on law and multilateral institutions. Global Action underscores the complementary, mutually-reinforcing nature of the four main types of work for peace that are under way in the world today:

     • Groups working for nonviolent conflict resolution through mediation and other means

     • Groups working for disarmament, particularly in the areas of nuclear, chemical, biological, small      arms, and land mines

     • Groups working to develop to a participatory, cooperative, demilitarized global security system,      functioning under the auspices of a reformed UN, to replace the current hegemonic, militarized      global system dominated by the United States

     • Those working to end domestic and community violence and build "cultures of peace" within      nations

In addition to uniting these disparate components of work for peace, Global Action to Prevent War gives special attention to some aspects of war prevention and disarmament that are not currently the subject of any major on-going peace efforts:

     • The standing conventional military forces maintained by the USA, Russia, China, the largest      industrial countries, and the key players in longstanding regional conflicts, India, Pakistan, North      and South Korea, Taiwan, and most countries in the Middle East

     • The need to make deep cuts in these forces and to reduce or end the production and trade of      major conventional weapons in the process of transforming worldwide security policies from a      hegemonic, militarized system to a cooperative, demilitarized system

     Standing conventional armed forces, and the arms production and trade that support these forces,      account for more than 90 percent of world military spending. They also pose threats of large-scale      warfare, and they are the foundation for the spread of weapons of mass destruction. But because      it is harder to develop a consensus on alternative security options, conventional forces, military      spending, and major weapons production and trade get much less attention than weapons of      mass destruction, land mines, or small arms.

To address the core issues of the prevention of major war, disarmament, and demilitarization, Global Action to Prevent War proposes a phased, interactive process that involved cumulative, mutually reinforcing steps in three areas:

     1. Strengthening means of nonviolent conflict resolution and prevention

     2. Undertaking confidence-building measures, limits, and step-by-step reductions in conventional      arms holdings, production, and trade, and nuclear weapons

     3. Building confidence in the ability of the UN and comparable regional organizations to deter and,      if needed, intervene to defend against and end cross-border military aggression and internal      mass killing

     The goal of Global Action to Prevent War is to build a vast coalition of individuals, organizations,      and governments, committed to moving the world as far as possible toward ending war. We are      trying to do with war what the international community has done with slavery: to make it illegal and      immoral, rare, small in scale, and, when discovered, quickly ended through decisive intervention      by the international community. Supporters of Global Action to Prevent War believe that with a      concerted international effort, this goal can be reached in a matter of decades.

     For the program and International Steering Committee, see http://www.globalactionpw.org