Toward a Post-Nuclear Just Peace
September 1, 2020 // 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT // Online Zoom Webinar
On November 10, 2017, Pope Francis became the first pontiff to ban nuclear weapons outright, even for the purpose of deterrence. At a Vatican conference of leaders in the field of disarmament, he made it clear that the possession of the bomb itself was immoral. The Catholic Church’s advocacy of nuclear abolition presents an opportunity for global leaders to connect disarmament to larger movements for peace, pointing toward future action. In a similar development including voices from violent conflict zones and Vatican conferences in 2016 and 2019, the just peace ethic provides a crucial framework for considering how we might proceed on this issue and other intense conflicts. Recognizing that all life is sacred while also seeking peace through violence is an untenable position. Just peace is an important framework for considering how we might pursue a nonnuclear peace. It turns our attention to creative strategies of active nonviolence embedded in the characters of the practitioners.
In this conversation, Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., co-editor of A World Free From Nuclear Weapons (2020), and Eli McCarthy, editor of A Just Peace Ethic Primer (2020), will discuss the implications of the Pope’s stance on nuclear disarmament and how a just peace might be pursued more faithfully, consistently, and effectively. Topics will include the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, the challenges of the new nuclear age, the three categories of a just peace ethic and a case example, and the agenda for both theoretical inquiry and programs of social action in pursuit of a post-nuclear peace.
PeaceCon 2020: Pandemics, Peace, Justice: Shaping What Comes Next
December 7-9, 2020
In the midst of a global pandemic, rising global violence, and a national and worldwide reckoning over systemic injustice and racism, PeaceCon 2020 will bring together experts and practitioners to consider the interplay of justice and peacebuilding, and strategies to elevate and integrate peacebuilding in our collective effort to shape a more just, secure and peaceful future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference
February 10 & 11, 2021 // Nova Southeastern University’s main campus in Ft. Lauderdale
This conference hosts the PCSJ community for a timely and urgent exploration of the divisive social, political and economic forces that are driving so much conflict, and what our field can bring in terms of theories, research and practice solutions.
Call for Papers for Border Walls and Borderlands: Security, Environment and Resistance International Conference
This international conference is organized by the Raoul-Dandurand chair at the Univeristy of Quebec in Montreal. Occurring May 19-20, 2021 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Deadline for abstract submission: November 1, 2020 (for both paper and art installation submissions).
U.S. Institute of Peace – Global Campus
The current responses to COVID-19 and systemic racism have created an increased demand for resources and training to help today’s peacebuilders transform violent conflicts in their communities and to assist people who are seeking nonviolent change around the world. To meet that demand, the U.S. Institute of Peace is offering its entire catalog of online courses tuition-free from now until the end of 2020.
Congress founded the Institute to strengthen America’s ability to reduce costly armed conflicts abroad—and its education and training programs are a core method by which USIP pursues that mission. Over its 35 years, the Institute has trained tens of thousands of peacebuilders from 198 countries and territories in the skills needed to prevent or reduce violence. The Institute’s trainees have included U.S. and foreign diplomats and military personnel, police officers, government officials, conflict resolution practitioners, students—and ordinary citizens working to build sustainable peace in their communities.
USIP has built its Global Campus—an online training center with 33 courses in basic conflict resolution skills and peacebuilding tools—to help policymakers, practitioners and people working to build peace internationally or in their own communities. The online training includes introductory micro-courses that require at most three hours of study and full-length courses that may require 10 to 20 hours to complete. Online trainees receive a certificate of completion.
Career Services Webinar Series hosted by National Peace Corps Association
NPCA launched a Career Services webinar series led by Dr. Ronda Ansted. Dr. Ansted has spent most of her professional life in the non-profit and international development fields. She was a mid-career PCV in South Africa and became a career consultant.
EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament eLearning Course
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, distance learning has become significantly more important to lecturers and students. As you might be aware, the EU established a European network of independent non-proliferation think tanks in 2010, managed by the six members of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium (EUNPDC). One major project of the consortium is the development and maintenance of this online course. The course is completely free of charge, GDPR compliant and does require registration only for users who want one of several certificates. Our course comprises fifteen learning units that cover a whole range of issues; including arms control theory and WMD, conventional weapons, humanitarian arms control, missiles and emerging technologies. It has been used by 1000+ persons already, and features in syllabi by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and other international institutions.