Resting on a convincing body of evidence that violence is not a necessary component of conflict among states and between states and non-state actors, World Beyond War asserts that war itself can be ended. We humans have lived without war for most of our existence and most people live without war most of the time. Warfare arose about 10,000 years ago (only five percent of our existence as Homo sapiens) and spawned a vicious cycle of warfare as peoples, fearing attack by militarized states, found it necessary to imitate them. So began the cycle of violence that has culminated in the last 100 years in a condition of permawar. War now threatens to destroy civilization as weapons have become ever more destructive. However, in the last 150 years, revolutionary new knowledge and methods of nonviolent conflict management have been developing that lead us to assert that it is time to end warfare and that we can do so by mobilizing millions around a global effort.

In this report you will find the pillars of war which must be taken down so that the whole edifice of the War System can collapse. Also in this report you will find the foundations of peace, already being laid, on which we will build a world where everyone will be safe. This report presents a comprehensive blueprint for peace as the basis of an action plan to finally end war.

It begins with a provocative “Vision of Peace” which may seem to some to be utopian until one reads the rest of the report which comprises the means for achieving it. The first two parts of the report present an analysis of how the current war system works, the desirability and necessity of replacing it, and an analysis of why doing this is possible. The next part outlines the Alternative Global Security System, rejecting the failed system of national security and replacing it with the concept of common security – no one is safe until all are safe. This system relies on three broad strategies for humanity to end war: 1) demilitarizing security, 2) managing conflicts without violence, and 3) creating a culture of peace. These are the strategies to dismantling the war machine and replacing it with a peace system that will provide a more assured common security. These comprise the “hardware” of creating a peace system. The next section, strategies for accelerating the already developing Culture of Peace, provides the “software,” that is, the values and concepts necessary to operate a peace system and the means to spread them globally. The remainder of the report addresses realistic steps an individual or group can take, ending with a resource guide for further study.

While this report is based on the work of many experts in peace studies, political science, and international relations, as well as on the experience of many activists, it is intended to be an evolving plan as we gain more and more experience. The challenges outlined in the first part are real, interconnected, and tremendous. Sometimes we don’t make the connections because we don’t see them. Sometimes we simply bury our heads in the sand – the problems are too big, too overwhelming, too uncomfortable. The bad news is that the problems won’t go away if we ignore them. The good news is that there is reason for authentic hope. The historic end of war is now possible if we muster the will to act and so save ourselves and the planet from ever greater catastrophe. World Beyond War firmly believes that we can do this.