Department of Peace

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Department of Peace and Non-violence is a proposed cabinet-level department of the executive branch of the U.S. government. The original idea of a Peace Department in the United States dates back to the administration of George Washington, but has been most recently reinitiated by Rep. Dennis Kucinich beginning in 2001 and formed a part of Kucinich's presidential campaign platform in 2004 and 2008. A bill for this purpose, HR 3760, was previously introduced in the House of Representatives on September 14, 2005. It has most recently been re-introduced via HR 808 on February 5, 2007 and 65 co-sponsors have since quickly signed on.

The Peace Alliance organization supports the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence. It is an independent grassroots political movement that operates autonomously. The ongoing movement is supported by Kucinich and the author and popular motivational speaker Marianne Williamson. This movement actively lobbies for the endorsements of congressional leaders. It has local grassroots chapters in over 264 congressional districts.[1]

Contents

[edit] Anti-violence versus pro-peace

The as-drafted 2007 HR 808 language includes a number of examples focusing the proposed Department of Peace's efforts on anti-war and anti-violence efforts rather than purely pro-peace initiatives, which, according to Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love, are strongly opposed concepts:

"Several years ago I was at a cocktail party where I got into a very heated debate about American foreign policy. Later that night, I had a kind of waking dream. A gentleman appeared to me and said, "Excuse me, Miss Williamson, but we thought we should tell you: In the cosmic roll call, you are considered a hawk, not a dove." I was incensed. "No way," I said indignantly. "I'm totally for peace. I'm a dove all the way." "I'm afraid not," he said. "I'm looking on our charts, and it says very clearly right here: Marianne Williamson, warmonger. You're at war with Ronald Reagan, Caspar Weinberger, the CIA, in fact the entire American defense establishment. No, I'm sorry. You're definitely a hawk." I saw of course that he was right. I had just as many missiles in my head as Ronald Reagan had in his. I thought it was wrong for him to judge communists, but I thought it was okay for me to judge him. Why? Because I was right, of course! I spent years as an angry left-winger before I realized that an angry generation can't bring peace."

Example anti-violence or anti-war language from HR 808 includes:

  • The formal title is the "Department of Peace and Nonviolence"
  • The department is partly designed to "work to...divert from armed conflict"
  • The department is to:
    • "…monitor and analyze causative principles of conflict"
    • "…develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal abuse, child abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly"
    • "…develop policies to address violence against animals"
    • "…develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence, including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of handguns"
    • "…develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes"
    • "…advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict"
    • "…help with the enforcement of international arms embargoes"
    • "…submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction"
    • "…make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations"
    • "…study the role of the media in the escalation and de-escalation of conflict"
  • Proposed additional positions include: "Assistant Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament"
  • Proposed transfers include: "Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control, and the International Security Affairs of the Department of State"[2]

[edit] Prior proposals

In July 2001, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence legislation to Congress though it is unclear how similar his version of a Department of Peace and Non-violence would be to that of the founding fathers. The September 11 attacks several months later put the idea on hold.

Kucinich proposed a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence again (House Resolution 1673) in April 2003; the legislation enjoyed the support of 75 co-sponsors and is endorsed by groups including Amnesty International and the National Organization for Women.

This bill includes several additional proposed mandates which would go beyond the existing mandates of the US Institute of Peace. Some highlights among the areas of proposed additional responsibility include:

  • Teach violence prevention, conflict resolution skills and mediation to America's school children in classrooms as an elective or requirement, providing them with the communication tools they need to express themselves beginning in elementary school through high school.
  • Provide violence prevention programs addressing domestic violence, gang violence, drug and alcohol related violence, and the like.
  • To effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology.
  • To rehabilitate the prison population.
  • To build peace making efforts among conflicting cultures both here and abroad.
  • To support our military with complementary approaches to ending violence.
  • Monitoring of all domestic arms production, including non-military arms, conventional military arms, and of weapons of mass destruction.
  • Making regular recommendations to the US President for various arms reductions strategies.
  • Assumption of a more proactive level of involvement in the establishment of international dialogues for international conflict resolution (as a cabinet level department).
  • Establishment of a US Peace Academy, which among other things would train international peace-keepers.
  • Development of an educational media program to promote non-violence in the domestic media.
  • Monitoring of human rights, both domestically and abroad.
  • Making regular recommendations to the President for the maintenance and improvement of these human rights.
  • Receiving a timely mandatory advance consultation from the Secretaries of State, and of Defense, prior to any engagement of US troops in any armed conflict with any other nation.
  • Establishment of a national Peace Day.
  • Participation by the Secretary of Peace as a member of the National Security Council.
  • Expansion of the national Sister City program.
  • Significant expansion of current Institute of Peace program involvement in educational affairs, in areas such as:
  1. Drug rehabilitation,
  2. Policy reviews concerning crime prevention, punishment, and rehabilitation,
  3. Implementation of violence prevention counseling programs and peer mediation programs in schools,
  • Also, making recommendations regarding:
  1. Battered women's rights,
  2. Animal rights,
  • Various other "peace related areas of responsibility".

Proposed funding for a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence would initially come from a budget that is defined by the violence-prevention bill as, "at least 1 percent of the proposed federal discretionary budget, FY 2008 of which 53% is already allocated to the Department of Defense (budget)". Whether or not the chairman of the US Institute of Peace would be promoted to a cabinet level position, or whether an entirely new position would be created, is not addressed by this bill.

Kucinich continues to actively promote and lobby for this legislation.

Kucinich has also stated if he could pick anyone to head this department he would pick Jimmy Carter.

[edit] Similar proposals

The idea for the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-violence can be traced back to debates by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. An essay on the establishment of a peace organization was written in 1792 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician, educator, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. His proposal called for the establishment of a "Peace Office" which was to be on equal footing with the "War Office". It saw an urgent need for the establishment of "an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country" in order to maintain the greater welfare of "these United States." But it also called for free schools for youth "carefully instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the doctrines of a religion of some kind", distributing free Bibles at public expense, and putting a sign over the door of the War Department proclaiming "An office for butchering the human species".[3]

[edit] Fiction

The novel 1988 (a fictional work about the upcoming 1988 presidential election published in 1985) by then-Governor of Colorado Richard Lamm, includes a very similar proposal where the third-party presidential candidate in the novel proposes a cabinet-level Agency for U.S. Peace and Conflict Resolution with a Secretary of Peace who could challenge the Secretary of Defense when necessary.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Get Active and Volunteer. The Peace Alliance. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
  2. ^ H.R. 808: Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act (2007). Retrieved on 2008-03-06.
  3. ^ "A Plan of a Peace-Office for the United States" Retrieved on March 24, 2007

[edit] External links

 This article or section may contain an excessive amount of external links.
Please improve this article by incorporating them into the appropriate end section, or by converting them to inline citations (February 2008)