World Beyond War – an idea whose time has come

As funders and an organization with an active peacebuilding program, we want to share exciting news about our involvement with a new initiative.

World Beyond War (WBW) is a growing coalition of individuals and groups – at this point mainly from the traditional peace movement – who are creating a global movement to end all war and preparations for war.

The official launch date will be the International Day of Peace on September 21, 2014. Even though the campaign has not yet “officially” started, there is a remarkable amount of strategizing, research and outreach happening. You can view a preliminary website at www.worldbeyondwar.org. At the writing of this announcement more than 2,000 people and 100 organizations from 30 countries have already signed on to the evolving movement. Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, Noam Chomsky and Johan Galtung are among several well-known individuals who already endorsed the campaign.

We recognize that the time is ripe to work toward the end of war. War is immoral, it is ineffective, it endangers us, it threatens our environment, it erodes our liberties and it impoverishes us. We believe WBW can be built on existing progress of peacebuilding, disarmament, ending current wars and occupations and most importantly advancing alternatives to war.

The emerging grassroots movement to end all war can count on something unprecedented in history – a global infrastructure of peace. We believe there is a unique opportunity for synergy between the experienced grassroots movement builders and peacebuilders in other sectors of society. Just imagine the roles that businesses, the media, educators, environmentalists, religious communities or private citizens can play in the peacebuilding process. We also have great opportunities with civil society organizations like Rotary International, where we have been involved as founders and funders of the Rotarian Action Group for Peace (www.rotarianactiongroupforpeace.org).

Finally the sector that needs to get more involved in peacebuilding is the funding community. All of us who made the conscious decision to join the Peace and Security Funders Group are already committed to support peace and security work around the world. We also chose to be part of an association dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of philanthropy that is focused on peace and security issues. To the existing infrastructure of peace, we as funders contribute resources, knowledge, networks and access on many societal levels.

With the Jubitz Family Foundation’s foundational program – the War Prevention Initiative – we committed long-term resources to support peacebuilding efforts in all sectors of society and advancing the Global Peace System guided by the vision of ending all war by 2030.

Some might call us naïve, especially those who have been involved in applied peacebuilding work for many years and those who have experienced wars and other intractable conflicts. We acknowledge that preventing all forms of collective violence and creating peace with justice will be an ongoing process of human evolution. Ending the human-made institution of war, however, is possible just like ending slavery was achieved worldwide, despite it being deeply embedded in global social, cultural, economic and religious structures.

We are convinced of the potential of the World Beyond War movement. We helped draft the following statement which members of the movement are being asked to sign/consider signing:

We understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. We commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.

While we encourage you to sign the individual and organizational pledges, we really hope to have substantial dialog within this group on how we can utilize our network to help build a global movement to end war. We’d love to hear from you!

 

In Peace,

Al Jubitz (President, Jubitz Family Foundation)

Ray Jubitz (Executive Director, Jubitz Family Foundation)

 

For more detailed information about the World Beyond War movement, please contact our liaison and Executive Director of our War Prevention Initiative, Dr. Patrick Hiller at philler@pdx.edu.