World peace is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would come about.
Various religious and secular organizations have the stated aim of achieving world peace through addressing human rights, technology, education, engineering, medicine, or diplomacy used as an end to all forms of fighting. Since 1945, the United Nations and the five permanent members of its Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States)
have operated under the aim to resolve conflicts without war.
Nonetheless, nations have entered numerous military conflicts since
then.
Capitalist, or commercial peace, forms one of the three planks of Kantian peace, together with democratic peace theory
and institutionalist arguments for peace. Although the evidence is
inconclusive, various scholars have argued for capitalist peace. For instance, in her essay "The Roots of War", Ayn Rand
held that the major wars of history were started by the more controlled
economies of the time against the freer ones and that capitalism gave
mankind the longest period of peace in history—a period during which
there were no wars involving the entire civilized world—from the end of
the Napoleonic wars in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, with the exceptions of the Franco-Prussian War (1870), the Spanish–American War (1898), the Crimean War (1853–1856), the Boer Wars (1880–1881, 1899–1902), and the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Cobdenism
Proponents of Cobdenism claim that by removing tariffs and creating international free trade, wars would become impossible because free trade prevents a nation from becoming self-sufficient, which is a requirement for long wars.
However, free trade does not prevent a nation from establishing
some sort of emergency plan to become temporarily self-sufficient in
case of war or that a nation could simply acquire what it needs from a
different nation. A good example of this is World War I,
during which both Britain and Germany became partially self-sufficient.
This is particularly important because Germany had no plan for creating
a war economy.
Democratic peace theory
Proponents of democratic peace theory, developed mainly in the 1960s but relying in part on eighteenth century Kantian
theory, and frequently espoused by Western politicians, claim that
strong empirical evidence exists that democracies never or rarely wage
war against each other.However, several wars between democracies have taken place, historically, such as the Kargil War and the Cenepa War.
Relevant issues of debate include whether sufficient data is available
to statistically prove the theory and whether peace results in democracy
(territorial peace theory) or vice versa.
Economic norms theory
Michael Mousseau's economic norms theory links economic conditions with institutions of governance and conflict, distinguishing personal clientelist economies from impersonal market-oriented ones, identifying the latter with permanent peace within and between nations.
Throughout most of human history, societies have been based on
personal relations: individuals in groups know each other and exchange
favours. Today in most lower-income societies hierarchies of groups
distribute wealth based on personal relationships among group leaders, a
process often linked with clientelism and corruption. Michael Mousseau
argues that in this kind of socio-economy conflict is always present,
latent or overt, because individuals depend on their groups for physical
and economic security and are thus loyal to their groups rather than
their states, and because groups are in a constant state of conflict
over access to state coffers. Through processes of bounded rationality,
people are conditioned towards strong in-group identities and are
easily swayed to fear outsiders, psychological predispositions that make
possible sectarian violence, genocide, and terrorism.
Market-oriented socio-economics are integrated not with personal
ties but the impersonal force of the market where most individuals are
economically dependent on trusting strangers in contracts enforced by
the state. This creates loyalty to a state that enforces the rule of law
and contracts impartially and reliably and provides equal protection in
the freedom to contract – that is, liberal democracy. Wars cannot
happen within or between nations with market-integrated economies
because war requires the harming of others, and in these kinds of
economies, everyone is always economically better off when others in the
market are also better off, not worse off. Rather than fight, citizens
in market-oriented socio-economies care deeply about everyone's rights
and welfare, so they demand economic growth at home and economic
cooperation and human rights abroad. Nations with market-oriented
socio-economies tend to agree on global issues and not a single fatality has occurred in any dispute between them.
Economic norms theory should not be confused with classical
liberal theory. The latter assumes that markets are natural and that
freer markets promote wealth. In contrast, Economic norms theory shows how market-contracting is a
learned norm, and state spending, regulation, and redistribution are
necessary to ensure that almost everyone can participate in the "social
market" economy, which is in everyone's interests.
Marxism: World peace via world revolution
According to the dialectical materialist theory of Karl Marx, humanity under capitalism is divided into just two classes: the proletariat—who do not possess the means of production, and the bourgeoisie—who do possess the means of production. Once the communist revolution
occurs and consequently abolishes the private propriety of the means of
production, humanity will not be divided and the tension created
between these two classes will cease.
Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy based on rational deterrence in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both belligerents.Proponents of the policy of MAD, which as a term was coined in 1962 during the Cold War,
attributed this to the increase in the lethality of war to the point
where it no longer offers the possibility of a net gain for either side
(a form of Nash equilibrium), thereby making wars pointless.
Peace through strength
The concept of Peace through strength is traced back to the Roman Emperor Hadrian (reigned CE 117 – 138), or the Indian epic Ramayana
(7th to 4th centuries BCE) Lord Rama is quoted as saying "Bhay Bin Hoye
na Preet", meaning once prayers for peace fail, one may need to instill
fear to bring peace. In 1943, at the peak of World War II, the founder of the Paneuropean Union, Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, argued that after the war the United States (U.S.) was bound to take "command of the skies" to ensure the lasting world peace:
But the inauguration of such a glorious century of peace demands from us
abandonment of old conceptions of peace. The new Angel of Peace must no
longer be pictured as a charming but helpless lady with an olive branch
in her hand, but like the Goddess of Justice with a balance in her left
and a sword in her right; or like the Archangel Michael, with a fiery
sword and wings of steel, fighting the devil to restore and protect the
peace of heaven.
In fact, near the entrance to the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base stands a large sign with a SAC emblem and its motto: "Peace is our profession." The motto "was a staggering paradox that was also completely accurate". One SAC Bomber—Convair B-36—is called Peacemaker and one inter-continental missile-LGM-118-Peacekeeper.
In 2016, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter envisaged that the re-balance to the Asia-Pacific will make the region "peaceful" through "strength":
You, and your fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines will
solidify the rebalance, you will make this network work, and you will
help the Asia-Pacific... realize a principled and peaceful and
prosperous future. And play the role only America can play... You'll do
so with strength.
Introduction to US National Security and Defense Strategies of 2018
states: The US force posture combined with the allies will "preserve
peace through strength". The document proceeds to detail what "achieving
peace through strength requires".
Territorial peace theory
Proponents of the territorial peace theory
claim that countries with stable borders are likely to develop
democracy, while wars and territorial threats foster authoritarian
attitudes and a disregard for democracy. Increasing attention has been paid to the theory since the early 2000s, and it has increasingly informed democratic peace theory and been espoused in the cause of peacebuilding and international relations.
Proponents of democratic peace theory counter argue that stable borders
resulting from dispute arbitration or negotiation rather than force via
autocracy are more likely to be obtained by democratic states. Efforts
are underway to synthesize the two theories.
After World War II, the United Nations was established by the United Nations Charter
to "save successive generations from the scourge of war which twice in
our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind" (Preamble). The Preamble to the United Nations Charter also aims to further the adoption of fundamental human rights, to respect obligations to sources of international law as well as to unite the strength of independent countries to maintain international peace and security. All treaties on international human rights law
refer to or consider "the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the
United Nations, recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and
inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation
of freedom, justice and "peace in the world".
International Day of Peace
The United Nations International Day of Peace,
sometimes called World Peace Day, is observed annually on 21 September.
It is dedicated to peace, and specifically the absence of war and
violence, and can be celebrated by a temporary ceasefire in a combat
zone. The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly.
Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to
designate the day as a day of preventing violence and a cease-fire. The
celebration of this day is recognized by many nations and people. In
2013, for the first time, the day has been dedicated to peace education, i.e. by the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably.
Constitution for the Federation of Earth
Considering the UN's design as a forum and its lack of direct power
or authority over nations, it has received a fair amount of criticism
and since its foundation, prominent world figures have expressed their
concerns and called for the establishment of a democratic federalworld government. It is in that response, in early 1960s, the most comprehensive effort was made to draft a world constitution. Thane Read and Philip Isely
drafted a form of agreement that aimed to admit delegates from both
national governments and the people of all countries for a world
constitutional convention. A worldwide call for a World Constitutional Convention was sent, and thousands of world figures and five national governments signed the call.In result of that, the World Constitutional Convention and the Peoples World Parliament were held in Interlaken, Switzerland, and Wolfach, Germany, in 1968. Over 200 participants from 27 countries attended these sessions, where
the drafting of a constitution for a global federal world government
began. The second session of the World Constituent Assembly took place in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1977. And after extensive discussions and amendments, the draft constitution was unanimously adopted as the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. It was further amended in the 3rd Constituent Assembly, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1978-79 and the 4th World Constituent Assembly, Troia, Portugal, in 1991.
This constitution outlines a detailed plan for a world federalist government
and awaits ratification by the people and nations of the world. It
includes the protection of universal human rights, prevention of war,
secure disarmament, social development, protection of the environment,
and addresses many more global challenges.
The central aim of the Baháʼí Faith is the establishment of the unity of the peoples of the world. Bahá'u'lláh,
the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, stated in no uncertain terms, "the
fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to
safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race ...". In
his writings, Bahá'u'lláh described two distinct stages of world peace –
a lesser peace and a sense of most great peace.
The lesser peace is essentially a collective security agreement
between the nations of the world. In this arrangement, nations agree to
protect one another by rising up against an aggressor nation, should it
seek the usurpation of territory or the destruction of its neighbors.
The lesser peace is limited in scope and is concerned with the
establishment of basic order and the universal recognition of national
borders and the sovereignty of nations. Baháʼís believe that the lesser
peace is taking place largely through the operation of the Divine Will
and that Baháʼí influence on the process is relatively minor.
The greatest peace is the eventual end goal of the lesser peace
and is envisioned as a time of spiritual and social unity – a time when
the peoples of the world genuinely identify with and care for one
another, rather than simply tolerating one other's existence. The
Baháʼís view this process as taking place largely as a result of the
spread of Baháʼí teachings, principles, and practices throughout the
world. The larger world peace process and its foundational elements are
addressed in the document The Promise of World Peace, written by the Universal House of Justice.
Peace pagodas
are monuments that are built to symbolize and inspire world peace and
have been central to the peace movement throughout the years. These are
typical of Buddhist origin, being built by the Japanese Buddhist
organization Nipponzan Myohoji. They exist around the world in cities such as London, Vienna, New Delhi, Tokyo, and Lumbini.
Mount Ecclesia's long-standing suggestion for World Peace Meditation, along with annual purposeful devotional dates, as faithfully performed by its fraternal organization whose founder taught, in the 1910s, that "Peace is a matter of education,
and impossible of achievement until we have learned to deal charitably,
justly, and openly with one another, as nations as well as individuals"
As christologically interpreted from Isaiah 2,
whereupon the "Word of the Lord" is established on the earth, the
material human-political result will be 'nation not taking up sword
against nation; nor will they train for war anymore'. Christian world
peace necessitates the living of a proactive life replete with all good
works indirect light of the Word of God. The details of such a life can
be observed in the Gospels, especially the historically renowned Sermon on the Mount, where forgiving those who do wrong things against oneself is advocated among other pious precepts.
However, not all Christians expect a lasting world peace on this earth:
Do not suppose that I have come to
bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her
mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man's enemies
will be the members of his own household.
Many Christians believe that world peace is expected to be manifest
upon the "new earth" that is promised in Christian scripture such as Revelation 21.
Traditionally, Hinduism has adopted an ancient Sanskrit phrase Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, which translates as "The world is one family". The essence of this
concept is the observation that only base minds see dichotomies and
divisions. The more we seek wisdom, the more we become inclusive and
free our internal spirit from worldly illusions or Maya.
World peace is hence only achieved through internal means—by liberating
ourselves from artificial boundaries that separate us all. As with all Dharmic Religions, (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), ahimsa (avoidance of violence) is a central concept.
According to Islamic eschatology, the whole world will be united under the leadership of imamMahdi. At that time love, justice and peace will be so abundant that the world will be in the likeness of paradise.
Judaism is not a pacifist religion. However, the concept of Tikkun olam (Repairing the World) is central to modern Rabbinic Judaism. Tikkun Olam
is accomplished through various means, such as ritualistically
performing God's commandments, charity, and social justice, as well as
through example persuading the rest of the world to behave morally.
According to some views, Tikkun Olam would result at the beginning of the Messianic Age. It has been said that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the spiritual Messiah. If the time is right for the Messianic Age within that person's lifetime, then that person will be the Mashiach. But if that person dies before he completes the mission of the Messiah, then that person is not the Messiah (Mashiach).
Specifically, in Jewish messianism it is considered that at some future time a Messiah (literally "an anointed King appointed by God") will rise up to bring all Jews back to the Land of Israel, and to establish God's Torah, followed by everlasting global peace and prosperity. This idea originates from passages in the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud.
For Torah will go forth from Zion
and the Word of HaShem from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the
nations and decide disputes for many peoples, and they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift the sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.
Compassion for all life, human and non-human, is central to Jainism. They have adopted the wordings of Lord Mahavira Jiyo our Jeeno Do.
Human life is valued as a unique, rare opportunity to reach
enlightenment; to kill any person, no matter what crime he may have
committed, is considered unimaginably abhorrent. It is a religion that
requires monks and laity, from all its sects and traditions, to be
vegetarian. Some Indian regions, such as Gujarat,
have been strongly influenced by Jains and often the majority of the
local Hindus of every denomination have also become vegetarian. Famous quote on world peace as per Jainism by a 19th-century Indian legend, Virchand Gandhi:
"May peace rule the universe; may peace rule in kingdoms and empires;
may peace rule in states and in the lands of the potentates; may peace
rule in the house of friends and may peace also rule in the house of
enemies." As with all Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), ahimsa (avoidance of violence) is a central concept.
The Sikh religion preaches that peace comes from God. However,
pacifism is not absolute in Sikh religion, and Sikhs have taken military
action against oppression.
Sikh people believe that meditation,
the means of communicating with God, is unfruitful without the noble
character of a devotee, as there can be no worship without performing
good deeds. Guru Nanak stressed now kirat karō:
that a Sikh should balance work, worship, and charity, and should
defend the rights of all creatures, and in particular, fellow human
beings. They are encouraged to have a chaṛdī kalā, or optimistic – resilience, view of life. Sikh teachings also stress the concept of sharing—vaṇḍ chakkō—through the distribution of free food at Sikh gurdwaras (langar), giving charitable donations, and working for the good of the community and others (sēvā).
Sikhs believe that no matter what race, sex, or religion one is, all
are equal in God's eyes. Men and women are equal and share the same
rights, and women can lead prayers. As with all Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), ahimsa (avoidance of violence) is a central concept.
Cover of Die Friedens-Warte, a German journal of the peace movement, issue #11, 1913Sweden: Stockholm's May 2015 Peace and Love Rally through the south side of the city drew hundreds of marchers and celebrants.
A global affiliation of activists and political interests viewed
as having a shared purpose and constituting a single movement has been
called "the peace movement", or an all-encompassing "anti-war
movement". Seen from this perspective, they are often indistinguishable
and constitute a loose, responsive, event-driven collaboration between
groups motivated by humanism, environmentalism, veganism, anti-racism, feminism, decentralization, hospitality, ideology, theology, and faith.
Ideas differ about what "peace" is (or should be), which results in a
number of movements seeking different ideals of peace. Although
"anti-war" movements often have short-term goals, peace movements
advocate an ongoing lifestyle and a proactive government policy.[1]
It is often unclear whether a movement, or a particular protest, is against war in general
or against one's government's participation in a war. This lack of
clarity (or long-term continuity) has been part of the strategy of those
seeking to end a war, such as the Vietnam War.
Global protests against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in early 2003 are an example of a specific, short-term, loosely affiliated single-issue "movement" consisting of relatively-scattered ideological priorities ranging from pacifism to Islamism and Anti-Americanism.
Those involved in multiple, similar short-term movements develop trust
relationships with other participants, and tend to join more-global,
long-term movements.
Elements of the global peace movement seek to guarantee health security by ending war and ensure what they view as basic human rights, including the right of all people to have access to clean air, water, food, shelter and health care. Activists seek social justice in the form of equal protection and equal opportunity under the law for groups which had been disenfranchised.
These movements led to the formation of Green parties in a number
of democratic countries in the late 20th century. The peace movement
has influenced these parties in countries such as Germany.
The first mass peace movements were the Peace of God (Latin: Pax Dei, proclaimed in AD 989 at the Council of Charroux)
and the Truce of God, which was proclaimed in 1027. The Peace of God
was spearheaded by bishops as a response to increasing violence against
monasteries after the fall of the Carolingian dynasty. The movement was promoted at a number of subsequent church councils, including Charroux (989 and c. 1028), Narbonne (990), Limoges (994 and 1031), Poitiers (c. 1000), and Bourges
(1038). The Truce of God sought to restrain violence by limiting the
number of days of the week and times of the year when the nobility was
able to employ violence. These peace movements "set the foundations for
modern European peace movements."
The Reformation gave rise to a number of Protestant sects beginning in the 16th century, including the peace churches. Foremost among these churches were the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Amish, Mennonites, and the Church of the Brethren.
The Quakers were prominent advocates of pacifism, who had repudiated
all forms of violence and adopted a pacifist interpretation of Christianity as early as 1660. Throughout the 18th-century wars in which Britain participated, the Quakers maintained a principled commitment not to serve in an army or militia and not pay the alternative £10 fine.
18th century
The major 18th-century peace movements were products of two schools
of thought which coalesced at the end of the century. One, rooted in the
secular Age of Enlightenment, promoted peace as the rational antidote to the world's ills; the other was part of the evangelical religious revival which had played an important role in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Representatives of the former included Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de Monsieur l'Abbe Saint-Pierre (1756); Immanuel Kant in Thoughts on Perpetual Peace, and Jeremy Bentham, who proposed the formation of a peace association in 1789. One representative of the latter was William Wilberforce;
Wilberforce thought that by following the Christian ideals of peace and
brotherhood, strict limits should be imposed on British involvement in
the French Revolutionary Wars.
19th century
1880 caricature of Henry Richard, a prominent advocate of pacifism
During the Napoleonic Wars
(1793–1814), no formal peace movement was established in Britain until
hostilities ended. A significant grassroots peace movement, animated by
universalist ideals, emerged from the perception that Britain fought in a
reactionary role and the increasingly visible impact of the war on the
nation's welfare in the form of higher taxes and casualties. Sixteen
peace petitions to Parliament were signed by members of the public;
anti-war and anti-Pitt demonstrations were held, and peace literature was widely disseminated.
The first formal peace movements appeared in 1815 and 1816. The first movement in the United States was the New York Peace Society, founded in 1815 by theologian David Low Dodge, followed by the Massachusetts Peace Society. The groups merged into the American Peace Society, which held weekly meetings and produced literature that was spread as far as Gibraltar and Malta describing the horrors of war and advocating pacifism on Christian grounds. The London Peace Society, also known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, was formed by philanthropist William Allen
in 1816 to promote permanent, universal peace. During the 1840s,
British women formed 15-to-20 person "Olive Leaf Circles" to discuss and
promote pacifist ideas.
The London Peace Society's influence began to grow during the mid-nineteenth century. Under Elihu Burritt and Henry Richard, the society convened the first International Peace Congress in London in 1843. The congress decided on two goals: to achieve the ideal of peaceable arbitration
of the affairs of nations, and to create an international institution
to achieve it. Richard became the society's full-time secretary in 1850;
he held the position for the next 40 years, and became known as the
"Apostle of Peace". He helped secure one of the peace movement's
earliest victories by securing a commitment for arbitration from the Great Powers in the Treaty of Paris (1856) at the end of the Crimean War. Wracked by social upheaval, the first peace congress on the European continent was held in Brussels in 1848; a second was held in Paris a year later.
By the 1850s, these movements were becoming well organized in the
major countries of Europe and North America, reaching middle-class
activists beyond the range of the earlier religious connections.
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the novelist Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914) after 1889 became a leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her pacifist novel, Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!). The book was published in 37 editions and translated into 12 languages. She helped organize the German Peace Society and became known internationally as the editor of the international pacifist journal Die Waffen nieder! In 1905 she became the first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) was one of the 20th century's most influential spokesmen for peace and non-violence, and Gandhism
is his body of ideas and principles Gandhi promoted. One of its most
important concepts is nonviolent resistance. According to
M. M. Sankhdher, Gandhism is not a systematic position in metaphysics or
political philosophy but a political creed, an economic doctrine, a
religious outlook, a moral precept, and a humanitarian worldview. An
effort not to systematize wisdom but to transform society, it is based
on faith in the goodness of human nature.
Gandhi was strongly influenced by the pacifism of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy wrote A Letter to a Hindu in 1908, which said that the Indian people could overthrow colonial rule only through passive resistance. In 1909, Gandhi and Tolstoy began a correspondence about the practical and theological applications of nonviolence. Gandhi saw himself as a disciple of Tolstoy because they agreed on the
issues of opposition to state authority and colonialism, loathed
violence, and preached non-resistance. However, they differed on
political strategy. Gandhi called for political involvement; a
nationalist, he was prepared to use nonviolent force but was also
willing to compromise.
Gandhi was the first person to apply the principle of nonviolence on a large scale. The concepts of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance
have a long history in Indian religious and philosophical thought, and
have had a number of revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and
Christian contexts. Gandhi explained his philosophy and way of life in
his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
Some of his remarks were widely quoted, such as "There are many causes
that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill
for."
Gandhi later realized that a high level of nonviolence required
great faith and courage, which not everyone possessed. He advised that
everyone need not strictly adhere to nonviolence, especially if it was a
cover for cowardice: "Where there is only a choice between cowardice
and violence, I would advise violence."
Gandhi came under political fire for his criticism of those who
attempted to achieve independence through violence. He responded, "There
was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give
fight to the British without arms when they had no arms ... but today I
am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the
Hindu–Moslem riots; therefore, people should arm themselves for
self-defense."
Gandhi's views were criticized in Britain during the Battle of Britain.
He told the British people in 1940, "I would like you to lay down the
arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will
invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the
countries you call your possessions ... If these gentlemen choose to
occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free
passage out, you will allow yourselves man, woman, and child to be
slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
The Deserter (1916), by Boardman RobinsonA World War I–era peace protester
Although the onset of the First World War was generally greeted with enthusiastic patriotism across Europe, peace groups were active in condemning the war. Many socialist groups and movements were antimilitarist. They argued that by its nature, war was a type of governmental coercion of the working class for the benefit of capitalist elites.
In 1915, the League of Nations Society was formed by British liberal leaders to promote a strong international organization which could enforce peaceful conflict resolution. Later that year, the League to Enforce Peace was established in the United States to promote similar goals. Hamilton Holt published "The Way to Disarm: A Practical Proposal", an editorial in the Independent
(his New York City weekly magazine) on September 28, 1914. The
editorial called for an international organization to agree on the
arbitration of disputes and guarantee the territorial integrity of its
members by maintaining military forces sufficient to defeat those of any
non-member. The ensuing debate among prominent internationalists
modified Holt's plan to align it more closely with proposals in Great
Britain put forth by Viscount James Bryce, a former ambassador from the U.K. to the U.S. These and other initiatives were pivotal to the attitude changes which gave rise to the League of Nations after the war. In addition to the peace churches, groups which protested against the war included the Woman's Peace Party (organized in 1915 and led by Jane Addams), the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) (also organized in 1915), the American Union Against Militarism, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the American Friends Service Committee. Jeannette Rankin
(the first woman elected to Congress) was another advocate of pacifism,
and the only person to vote "no" on the U.S. entrance into both world
wars.
Henry Ford
Peace promotion was a major activity of American automaker and philanthropist Henry Ford
(1863–1947). He set up a $1 million fund to promote peace, and
published numerous antiwar articles and ads in hundreds of newspapers.
According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading
industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that
retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically
suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it
takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that
capitalism would discourage warfare because, "If every man who
manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best
way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of
war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets
which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers
enjoyed wars, but he argued the typical capitalist wanted to avoid wars
to concentrate on manufacturing and selling what people wanted, hiring
good workers, and generating steady long-term profits.
In late 1915, Ford sponsored and funded a Peace Ship to Europe, to help end the raging World War. He brought 170 peace activists; Jane Addams
was a key supporter who became too ill to join him. Ford talked to
President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government
support. His group met with peace activists in neutral Sweden and the
Netherlands. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it
reached Sweden.
Interwar period
Refugees from the Spanish Civil War at the War Resisters' International children's refuge in the French Pyrenees
A popular slogan was "merchants of death" alleging the promotion of war by armaments makers, based on a widely read nonfiction exposé Merchants of Death (1934), by H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen.
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom helped
convince the U.S. Senate to launch an influential investigation by the Nye Committee
to the effect that the munitions industry and Wall Street financiers
had promoted American entry into World War I to cover their financial
investments. The immediate result was a series of laws imposing neutrality on American business if other countries went to war.
Novels and films
Pacifism and revulsion to war were popular sentiments in 1920s
Britain. A number of novels and poems about the futility of war and the
slaughter of youth by old fools were published, including Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Beverley Nichols' Cry Havoc! A 1933 University of Oxford
debate on the proposed motion that "one must fight for King and
country" reflected the changed mood when the motion was defeated. Dick Sheppard established the Peace Pledge Union in 1934, renouncing war and aggression. The idea of collective security
was also popular; instead of outright pacifism, the public generally
exhibited a determination to stand up to aggression with economic
sanctions and multilateral negotiations.
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was a major test of international pacifism, pacifist organizations (such as War Resisters' International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation), and individuals such as José Brocca and Amparo Poch.
Activists on the left often put their pacifism on pause in order to
help the war effort of the Spanish government. Shortly after the war
ended, Simone Weil (despite volunteering for service on the Republican side) published The Iliad or the Poem of Force, which has been described as a pacifist manifesto. In response to the threat of fascism, pacifist thinkers such as Richard B. Gregg devised plans for a campaign of nonviolent resistance in the event of a fascist invasion or takeover.
At the beginning of World War II, pacifist and anti-war sentiment declined in nations affected by the war. The communist-controlled American Peace Mobilization reversed its anti-war activism, however, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Although mainstream isolationist groups such as the America First Committee declined after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a number of small religious and socialist groups continued their opposition to the war. Bertrand Russell said that the necessity of defeating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis was a unique circumstance in which war was not the worst possible evil, and called his position "relative pacifism". Albert Einstein
wrote, "I loathe all armies and any kind of violence, yet I'm firmly
convinced that at present these hateful weapons offer the only effective
protection." French pacifists André and Magda Trocmé helped to conceal hundreds of Jews fleeing the Nazis in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. After the war, the Trocmés were declared Righteous Among the Nations.
Pacifists in Nazi Germany were treated harshly. German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky and Norwegian pacifist Olaf Kullmann (who remained active during the German occupation) died in concentration camps. Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter was executed in 1943 for refusing to serve in the Wehrmacht.
Conscientious objectors and war tax resisters
existed in both world wars, and the United States government allowed
sincere objectors to serve in non-combat military roles. However, draft resisters
who refused any cooperation with the war effort often spent much of
each war in federal prisons. During World War II, pacifist leaders such
as Dorothy Day and Ammon Hennacy of the Catholic Worker Movement
urged young Americans not to enlist in the military. Peace movements
have become widespread throughout the world since World War II, and
their previously-radical beliefs are now a part of mainstream political
discourse.
Peace movements emerged in Japan, combining in 1954 to form the
Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. Japanese opposition
to the Pacific nuclear-weapons tests was widespread, and an "estimated
35 million signatures were collected on petitions calling for bans on
nuclear weapons".
The CND advocated the unconditional renunciation of the use,
production, or dependence upon nuclear weapons by Britain, and the
creation of a general disarmament convention. Although the country was
progressing towards de-nuclearization, the CND declared that Britain
should halt the flight of nuclear-armed planes, end nuclear testing,
stop using missile bases, and not provide nuclear weapons to any other
country.
The first Aldermaston March, organized by the CND, was held on Easter 1958. Several thousand people marched for four days from Trafalgar Square in London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, near Aldermaston in Berkshire, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons. The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s, when tens of thousands of people participated in the four-day marches. The CND tapped into the widespread popular fear of, and opposition to, nuclear weapons after the development of the first hydrogen bomb. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, anti-nuclear marches attracted large numbers of people.
Popular opposition to nuclear weapons produced a Labour Party
resolution for unilateral nuclear disarmament at the 1960 party
conference, but the resolution was overturned the following year and did not appear on later agendas. The experience disillusioned many
anti-nuclear protesters who had previously put their hopes in the Labour
Party.
Two years after the CND's formation, president Bertrand Russell resigned to form the Committee of 100;
the committee planned to conduct sit-down demonstrations in central
London and at nuclear bases around the UK. Russell said that the
demonstrations were necessary because the press had become indifferent
to the CND and large-scale, direct action could force the government to
change its policy. One hundred prominent people, many in the arts, attached their names to
the organization. Large numbers of demonstrators were essential to
their strategy but police violence, the arrest and imprisonment of
demonstrators, and preemptive arrests for conspiracy diminished support.
Although several prominent people took part in sit-down demonstrations
(including Russell, whose imprisonment at age 89 was widely reported),
many of the 100 signatories were inactive.
Since the Committee of 100 had a non-hierarchical structure and no
formal membership, many local groups assumed the name. Although this
helped civil disobedience to spread, it produced policy confusion; as
the 1960s progressed, a number of Committee of 100 groups protested
against social issues not directly related to war and peace.
In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace
marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against
nuclear weapons. It was the century's largest national women's peace protest.
In 1958, Linus Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations with a petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an end to nuclear weapons testing. The 1961 Baby Tooth Survey, co-founded by Dr. Louise Reiss, indicated that above-ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks in the form of radioactive fallout spread primarily via milk from cows which ate contaminated grass. Public pressure and the research results then led to a moratorium on above ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed in 1963 by John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Harold Macmillan. On the day that the treaty went into force, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling the Nobel Peace Prize:
"Linus Carl Pauling, who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly,
not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of
these armaments, not only against their very use but against all warfare
as a means of solving international conflicts." Pauling founded the International League of Humanists in 1974; he was president of the scientific advisory board of the World Union for Protection of Life, and a signatory of the Dubrovnik-Philadelphia Statement.
1981 protest in Amsterdam against the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe
On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the Cold War arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history. International Day of Nuclear-disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983, at 50 locations across the United States. In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. Many Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps were held at the Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s.
Forty thousand anti-nuclear and anti-war protesters marched past
the United Nations in New York on May 1, 2005, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The protest was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. In Britain, there were many protests against the government's proposal to replace the aging Trident weapons system
with newer missiles. The largest of the protests had 100,000
participants and, according to polls, 59 percent of the public opposed
the move.
Protesters against the Vietnam War prepare to march on the Pentagon on October 21, 1967.
The anti-Vietnam War peace movement began during the 1960s in the United States, opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Some within the movement advocated a unilateral withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam.
In 1965, the movement began to gain national prominence.
Provocative actions by police and protesters turned anti-war
demonstrations in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention into a riot. News reports of American military abuses such as the 1968 My Lai massacre brought attention (and support) to the anti-war movement, which continued to expand for the duration of the conflict.
High-profile opposition to the Vietnam war turned to street
protests in an effort to turn U.S. political opinion against the war.
The protests gained momentum from the civil rights movement, which had organized to oppose segregation laws. They were fueled by a growing network of underground newspapers and large rock festivals, such as Woodstock. Opposition to the war moved from college campuses to middle-class suburbs, government institutions, and labor unions.
Europe in 1980s
A very large peace movement emerged in East and West Europe in the
1980s, primarily in opposition to American plans to fight the Cold War
by stationing nuclear missiles in Europe. Moscow supported the movement behind the scenes, but did not control it. However, communist-sponsored peace movements in Eastern Europe
metamorphosed into genuine peace movements calling not only for détente,
but for democracy. According to Hania Fedorowicz, they played an
important role in East Germany and other countries in resurrecting civil
society, and helped instigate the successful 1989 peaceful revolutions
in Eastern Europe.
The first significant peace organisations emerged in 1899 after Australia sent troops to help the United Kingdom fight the Boer War
in South Africa. The Melbourne Peace and Humanity Society (PHS) was
founded in 1900, followed by the Anti-War League (AWL) in New South
Wales in 1902. The Melbourne Peace Society (MPS) was established in
1905, with similar groups forming in other cities. Women played
important roles, though mostly in organisational rather than leadership
capacities. Notable early female leaders included Rose Scott and Marian Harwood.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Australian Peace
Alliance (APA) was formed in 1914, initially with 13 affiliated groups,
growing to 54 by 1918. The APA included pacifists, socialists, liberal
Christians, trade unions, and women’s groups such as the Sisterhood of
International Peace (SIP) and the Women’s Peace Army (WPA). The
anti-conscription movement was a major focus during WWI, with groups
like the No-Conscription Fellowship supporting conscientious objectors
The peace movement diversified, with Christian pacifists and secular
organisations like the League of Nations Union (LNU) and the Victorian
Council Against War and Fascism (VCAWF) working together.
The rise of fascism and the approach of WWII caused divisions
within the movement, particularly between absolute pacifists and those
who supported collective security against aggression. Women’s groups,
especially the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), played a prominent role in international disarmament campaigns, including a major petition in 1931.
The peace movement was revitalised in the 1960s, primarily in opposition to the Vietnam War and conscription. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was founded in 1960, later merging into the broader anti-Vietnam War movement.
Canada
Canadian pacifist Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected to the House of Commons. Macphail objected to the Royal Military College of Canada in 1931 on pacifist grounds. Macphail was also the first female Canadian delegate to the League of Nations, where she worked with the World Disarmament Committee. Despite her pacifism, she voted for Canada to enter World War II. The Canadian Peace Congress (1949–1990) was a leading organizer of the Canadian peace movement, particularly under the leadership of James Gareth Endicott (its president until 1971).
For over a century Canada has had a diverse peace movement, with
coalitions and networks in many cities, towns, and regions. The largest
national umbrella organization is the Canadian Peace Alliance,
whose 140 member groups include large city-based coalitions, small
grassroots groups, national and local unions and faith, environmental
and student groups for a combined membership of over four million. The
alliance and its member groups have led opposition to the war on terror. The CPA opposed Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan and Canadian complicity in what it views as misguided and destructive United States foreign policy. Canada has also been home to a growing movement of Palestinian
solidarity, marked by an increasing number of grassroots Jewish groups
opposed to Israeli policies.
Germany developed a strong pacifist movement in the late 19th
century; it was suppressed during the Nazi era. After 1945 in East
Germany it was controlled by the communist government.
During the Cold War (1947–1989), the West German
peace movement concentrated on the abolition of nuclear technology
(particularly nuclear weapons) from West Germany and Europe. Most
activists criticized both the United States and the Soviet Union.
According to conservative critics, the movement had been infiltrated by Stasi agents.
After 1989, the ideal of peace was espoused by Green parties across Europe. Peace sometimes played a significant role in policy-making; in 2002, the German Greens convinced Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to oppose German involvement in Iraq. The Greens controlled the German Foreign Ministry under Joschka Fischer
(a Green, and Germany's most popular politician at the time), who
sought to limit German involvement in the war on terror. He joined
French President Jacques Chirac, whose opposition was decisive in the UN Security Council resolution to limit support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
India
The world's longest peaceful movement was the Bijolia movement, which continued for 44 years.
Israeli–Palestinian and Arab–Israeli conflicts have existed since the dawn of Zionism, particularly since the 1948 formation of the state of Israel and the 1967 Six-Day War. The mainstream peace movement in Israel is Peace Now (Shalom Akhshav), which tends to support the Labour Party or Meretz.
After the Second intifada and Palestinian rejections of peace
proposals, Tamar Hermann, director of the Guttman Center for Public
Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute said that
Israelis began to lose faith in the feasibility of peace although
Israelis support the idea of peace.
Peace Now was founded in the aftermath of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, when it was felt that an opportunity for peace could be missed. Prime Minister Menachem Begin acknowledged that on the eve of his departure for the Camp David summit with Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter,
Peace Now rallies in Tel Aviv (which drew a crowd of 100,000, the
largest peace rally in Israel to date) played a major role in his
decision to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula
and dismantle Israeli settlements there. Peace Now supported Begin for a
time and hailed him as a peacemaker, but turned against him when the
Sinai withdrawal was accompanied by an accelerated campaign of land
confiscation and settlement-building on the West Bank.
Peace Now advocates a negotiated peace with the Palestinians.
This was originally worded vaguely, with no definition of "the
Palestinians" and who represents them. Peace Now was slow to join the
dialogue with the PLO begun by groups such as the Israeli Council for
Israeli-Palestinian Peace and the Hadash coalition; only in 1988 did the group accept that the PLO is the body regarded by the Palestinians as their representative.
During the First Intifada, Peace Now held a number of rallies to protest the Israeli army and call for a negotiated withdrawal from the Palestinian territories; the group attacked Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his hard-line stance. After Rabin became prime minister, signed the Oslo Agreement and shook Yasser Arafat's
hand on the White House lawn, however, Peace Now mobilized strong
public support for him. Since Rabin's November 1995 assassination,
rallies on the anniversary of his death (organized by the Rabin Family
Foundation) have become the Israeli peace movement's main event. Peace
Now is currently known for its struggle against the expansion of
settlement outposts on the West Bank.
Gush Shalom
(the Peace Bloc) is a left-wing group which developed from the
Jewish-Arab Committee Against Deportations, which protested the
deportation without trial of 415 Palestinian activists to Lebanon in
December 1992 and put up a protest tent in front of the prime minister's
office in Jerusalem for two months until the government allowed the
deportees to return. The committee then decided to continue as a general
peace movement opposing the occupation and advocating the creation of
an independent Palestine side-by-side with Israel in its pre-1967 borders, with an undivided Jerusalem
the capital of both states. Gush Shalom is also descended from the
Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP), founded in 1975.
Its founders included a group of dissidents which included Major-General
Mattityahu Peled, a member of the IDF General Staff during the 1967 Six-Day War; economist Ya'akov Arnon,
who headed the Zionist Federation in the Netherlands before coming to
Israel in 1948 and the former director-general of the Israeli Ministry
of Finance and board chair of the Israeli Electricity Company; and Aryeh Eliav, Labour Party secretary-general until he broke with the Prime Minister Golda Meir
over Palestinian issues. The ICIPP's founders joined a group of young,
grassroots peace activists who had been active against Israeli
occupation since 1967. The bridge between them was journalist and former
Knesset member Uri Avnery. Its main achievement was the opening of dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO). Gush Shalom activists are currently involved in the daily
struggle in Palestinian villages which have had their land confiscated
by the West Bank barrier. They and members of other Israeli movements such as Ta'ayush and Anarchists Against the Wall joining Palestinian villagers in Bil'in in weekly marches to protest the village's land confiscation.
After the 2014 Gaza War, a group of Israeli women founded Women Wage Peace with the goal of reaching a "bilaterally acceptable" peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. The movement has worked to build connections with Palestinians,
reaching out to women and men from a variety of religions and political
backgrounds. Its activities have included a collective hunger strike outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence and a protest march from Northern Israel to Jerusalem. In May 2017, Women Wage Peace had over 20,000 members and supporters.
This small Pacific nation has a strong aspiration for global
peace, rooted in the Māori principle of Rongomaraeroa (the Long Pathway
to Peace). New Zealand women who were part of the suffrage movement played a
significant role in establishing the World Court, a permanent
arbitration court for peaceful resolution of international disputes. Stories of the horrors recounted by soldiers and nurses returning from both world wars, along with the impact of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
deeply ingrained the nation's commitment to peace. Military involvement
in subsequent conflicts has primarily focused on peacekeeping,
non-combat training, logistical support, medical assistance, and
post-war reconstruction teams.
In response to these events, a peace movement emerged, starting from grassroots groups like CORSO
across the country, with Christchurch being a prominent hub.
Christchurch was the first city in New Zealand to be declared
nuclear-free and became the nation's inaugural peace city in 2002. The city's botanical gardens are home to a world peace bell and a peace train. During the 1980s, the Sumner Peace Group, Rangiora Peace Group, and
Lyttelton Peace Group were active advocates for peace, supporting
various causes such as Citizens for Demilitarisation of Harewood,
Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, and Anti-Bases Campaign.
In 1973, the 'Battle of Harewood' saw individuals from peace movements protesting at two Operation Deep Freeze air defence bases at Harewood Airport and the nearby Weedons Stores Depot. Twenty-three individuals were arrested during the clashes. This event could be seen as a precursor to the protests at Waihopai Station spy-base and the unrest during the 1981 Springbok Tour.
The Cuban missile crisis and sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France strengthened the country's nuclear-free stance and garnered bipartisan support. This depth of sentiment remains robust today. As recently as 2024, Foreign Minister Winston Peters
emphasized the importance of seeking peaceful solutions, highlighting
the lesson learned from the Second World War that dialogue is preferable
to conflict.
From 1934 the Peace Pledge Union
gained many adherents to its pledge "I renounce war and will never
support or sanction another." Its support diminished considerably with
the outbreak of war in 1939, but it remained the focus of pacifism in
the post-war years.
After World War II, peace efforts in the United Kingdom were initially focused on the dissolution of the British Empire and the rejection of imperialism by the United States and the Soviet Union. The anti-nuclear movement
sought to opt out of the Cold War, rejecting "Britain's Little
Independent Nuclear Deterrent" (BLIND) on the grounds that it
contradicted mutual assured destruction.
Although the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, (VSC, led by Tariq Ali)
led several large demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1967 and
1968, the first anti-Vietnam demonstration was at the American Embassy
in London in 1965. In 1976, the Lucas Plan (led by Mike Cooley) sought to transform production at Lucas Aerospace from arms to socially-useful production.
The peace movement was later associated with peace camps, as the Labour Party moved to the center under Prime Minister Tony Blair. By early 2003, the peace and anti-war movements (grouped as the Stop the War Coalition)
were powerful enough to cause several of Blair's cabinet to resign and
hundreds of Labour MPs to vote against their government. Blair's motion
to support the U.S. plan to invade Iraq continued due to support from
the Conservative Party. Protests against the Iraq War
were particularly vocal in Britain. Polls suggested that without UN
Security Council approval, the UK public was opposed to involvement.
Over two million people protested in Hyde Park; the previous largest
demonstration in the UK had about 600,000 participants.
The primary function of the National Peace Council was to provide
opportunities for consultation and joint activities by its affiliated
members, to help inform public opinion on the issues of the day, and to
convey to the government the views of its members. The NPC disbanded in
2000 and was replaced the following year by the "Network for Peace", set
up to continue the NPC's networking role.
Near the end of the Cold War, U.S. peace activists focused on slowing
the nuclear arms race in the hope of reducing the possibility of
nuclear war between the U.S. and the USSR. As the Reagan administration accelerated military spending and adopted a tough stance toward Russia, the Nuclear Freeze campaign and Beyond War
movement sought to educate the public on the inherent risk and cost of
Reagan's policy. Outreach to individual citizens in the Soviet Union and
mass meetings using satellite-link technology were major parts of
peacemaking activity during the 1980s. In 1981, the activist Thomas began the longest uninterrupted peace vigil in U.S. history. He was later joined at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. by anti-nuclear activists Concepción Picciotto and Ellen Thomas.
In response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, President George H. W. Bush
began preparing for war in the region. Peace activists were starting to
gain traction with popular rallies, especially on the West Coast, just
before the Gulf War
began in February 1991. The ground war ended in less than a week with a
lopsided Allied victory, and a media-incited wave of patriotic
sentiment washed over the nascent protest movement.
During the 1990s, peacemaker priorities included seeking a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian impasse,
belated efforts at humanitarian assistance to war-torn regions such as
Bosnia and Rwanda, and aid to post-war Iraq. American peace activists
brought medicine into Iraq in defiance of U.S. law, resulting in heavy
fines and imprisonment for some. The principal groups involved included Voices in the Wilderness and the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Before and after the Iraq War began in 2003, a concerted protest effort was formed in the United States. A series of protests across the globe was held on February 15, 2003,
with events in about 800 cities. The following month, just before the
American- and British-led invasion of Iraq, "The World Says No to War"
protest attracted as many as 500,000 protestors to cities across the
U.S. After the war ended, many protest organizations persisted because
of the American military and corporate presence in Iraq.
Protesters against the Iraq War in Washington, D.C., in 2007
American activist groups, including United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink (Women Say No To War), Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Not in Our Name, A.N.S.W.E.R., Veterans for Peace, and The World Can't Wait
continued to protest against the Iraq War. Protest methods included
rallies and marches, impeachment petitions, the staging of a war-crimes
tribunal in New York to investigate crimes and alleged abuses of power
by the Bush administration,
bringing Iraqi women to the U.S. to tell their side of the story,
independent filmmaking, high-profile appearances by anti-war activists
such as Scott Ritter, Janis Karpinski, and Dahr Jamail,
resisting military recruiting on college campuses, withholding taxes,
mass letter-writing to legislators and newspapers, blogging, music, and guerrilla theatre. Independent media producers continued to broadcast, podcast, and web-host programs about the anti-war movement.
Although President Barack Obama continued the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, attendance at peace marches "declined precipitously". Social scientists Michael T. Heaney and Fabio Rojas noted that from
2007 to 2009, "the largest antiwar rallies shrank from hundreds of
thousands of people to thousands, and then to only hundreds."
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