Culture of Peace-Culture of War
The definition of a Culture of Peace in Table 1 was developed by the United Nations.
Table 1
| Culture of Peace | Culture of War |
|---|---|
| Transforming values, attitudes and behaviours based on violence to those which promote peace and nonviolence; | Retaining violence as one of the accepted ways of settling disputes, within and between nations, and promoting it through violence in the media and entertainment; fomenting war, for example by supplying armaments to third parties; |
| empowering people at all levels with skills of dialogue mediation and peacebuilding; | retaining top-down structures that impose the wishes of the hierarchy; |
| democratic participation of people in decision making; | decision making essentially in cabinet or by small cliques; |
| equal representation of women in decision making at all levels; | perpetuating male dominance, especially at the highest decision making levels; |
| the political and economic empowerment of women; | preserving male political and economic predominance; |
| the free flow of information and transparency and accountability of governing structures; | maintaining secrecy as an essential tool of the power structure; |
| the elimination of poverty and sharp inequalities within and between nations; | protecting the wealth and power of the rich without regard to the consequences; |
| the promotion of sustainable human development for all; | pursuing dominance through competition backed up by military might; |
| the preservation of the planet and all its species; | exploitation of the planet’s resources so as to maintain dominance; |
| advancing understanding, tolerance and respect of diversity among all peoples. | accentuating cultural, racial or class difference so as to target others as the enemy; |
| working toward arms control and the elimination of armaments | maintaining an arms industry in a position of economic privilege. |