Department of Peace?

By Jon Dougherty

Before the Department of Defense was reorganized and renamed in 1947 it was known as the Department of War. Now, a bill in Congress seeks to establish a “Department of Peace,” complete with a Cabinet-level secretary of peace.

The measure, known as H.R. 2459, seeks to create an agency that will “hold peace as an organizing principle” while it “endeavors to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights.”

A Peace Department would “develop policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict and structured mediation of conflict.”

Also, the bill would create the Intergovernmental Advisory Council on Peace, a Peace Department agency that “shall provide assistance and make recommendations to the secretary and the president concerning intergovernmental policies relating to peace and nonviolent conflict resolution.”

The bill was introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, July 11, 2001. The last major action on the bill occurred Sept. 28, when it was referred to the House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness. It has 43 cosponsors.

“The time for peace is now,” Kucinich said in a statement announcing the measure. “At the dawn of a new millennium, there is no better time to review age old challenges with new thinking that peace is not only the absence of violence, but the presence of a higher evolution of human awareness with respect, trust and integrity toward humankind.

“Our founding fathers recognized that peace was one of the highest duties of the newly organized free and independent states,” said Kucinich, who is a member of the Government Reform and Education Committee and the Workforce Committee. “But too often, we have overlooked the long-term solution of peace for instant gratification of war. This … downward spiral of violence must stop to ensure that future generations will live in peace and harmony.”

He described challenges to creating the department as “massive,” but said the alternative is worse.

“Violence at home, in the schools, in the media and between nations has dragged down humanity. It’s time to recognize that traditional militant objectives for peace are not working, and the only solution is to make peace the goal of a Cabinet-level agency,” he said.

The bill would establish a “peace academy” – ironically modeled after U.S. military academies, according to a summary of the bill on Kucinich’s website – where students would attend a four-year course of study.

“Graduates will be required to serve five years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution,” the summary said.

Besides a secretary of peace, the principal officers of the department will include the under secretary of peace; the assistant secretary for peace education and training; the assistant secretary for domestic peace activities; the assistant secretary for international peace activities; the assistant secretary for technology for peace; the assistant secretary for arms control and disarmament; the assistant secretary for peaceful coexistence and nonviolent conflict resolution; the assistant secretary for human and economic rights; and a general counsel.

The bill also designates Jan. 1 of each year as “Peace Day.”

“All should be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and endeavor to create peace in the coming year,” Kucinich said.

A subcommittee official said no hearings have been held on the bill, and “nothing is planned for the foreseeable future.”

The measure has been handed down to a number of subcommittees since it was first introduced. “That usually means nothing is going to happen with it,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told WorldNetDaily.

Phone calls to Kucinich’s office were not immediately returned.


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Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.