Embedded Files
1) 1999 UN Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace
Source: UN General Assembly format: document size: 11pgs multiple languages
Title: RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY: 53/243. Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace
Content: gives a definition of ‘peace’, calls for development of a ‘culture of peace’. Offers a an extensive programme of action on a culture of peace
2) A New Agenda for Peace – UN Secretary General, July 2023
Source: UN Policy Brief format: document size: 40pgs English
Full title: Our Common Agenda: A New Agenda for Peace, Policy Brief 9
Content: extended presentation of the multifactorial nature of increasing domestic and international conflict. Peace is linked to sustainable development and human rights. Presents principles for an effective collective security system: trust, solidarity, and universality. Presents action steps to move the UN, Member Countries and societies toward these aims.
Source: Future of Life Institute format: webpage size: about 4pgs 2024 English
Title: AI Convergence: Risks at the Intersection of AI and Nuclear, Biological and Cyber Threats
Content: analysis of risk; forward looking, frightening. Useful links to other resources, including (1) mission of FLI: steering transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks. Good set of core principles: Impact driven; cognizant of urgency; forward-thinking and anticipatory; driven by science and reason; and inclusive. Areas of focus: AI, biotechnology, nuclear weapons, cyber security. (2) position paper on AI. (3) AI Convergence: Risks at the Intersection of AI and Nuclear, Biological and Cyber Threats – Open letter authored by FLI and The Elders [deals with existential risks], with call for signatures
Source: UN Meetings Coverage and Press Releases; Security Council, 9042nd Meeting (AM & PM)
Size: about 19pgs 2022 English
Title: Ninety Per Cent of War-Time Casualties Are Civilians, Speakers Stress, Pressing Security Council to Fulfil Responsibility, Protect Innocent People in Conflicts
Content: With civilians accounting for nearly 90 per cent of war-time casualties and humanitarians threatened with arrest for providing aid to “the enemy”, the Security Council simply must do more to ensure the protection of innocent people caught amid the conflicts raging around the world, experts from the field told the 15-nation organ today, as over 70 delegates denounced its inaction and explored ways to stanch the suffering during the all-day debate. Includes contents of presentations by key experts.
5) Daniel Ellsberg on the causes of war
Source: Al Jazeera, UpFront programme, video on YouTube size: 24:57 min 2022 English
Marc Lamont Hill interviews Daniel Ellsberg
Title: Who really benefits from war?
Content: Explores link of drive for nuclear and other arms for war with who benefits. How financial links inform policy decisions. War and transparency are incompatible concepts. Russia is an “indispensable enemy” for NATO, Europe and the US – influencing the development and sale of weapons, policy decisions, etc. US taxpayers average >$2,000/yr/taxpayer on military spending, $27 on social welfare, and $3 on climate/environment protection
6) Data about carbon emissions of the Gaza war
Source: Queen Mary University of London; News stories Webpage size: about 2pgs 2024 English
Title: New study reveals substantial carbon emissions from the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict
Content: A new study by an international team of researchers has revealed the significant environmental impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. Co-authored by Dr Benjamin Neimark, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, the study provides a comprehensive estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the conflict and calls for mandatory military emissions reporting. Emissions from the first 120 days of the conflict were greater than the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories. When factoring in infrastructures of both sides, the level rose to more than 36 countries and territories. Emissions for rebuilding Gaza are expected to be more than 135 countries. The webpage includes a link to the full article in downloadable form.
7) Data about global military spending surge
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): SIPRI for the media webpage size: about 4pgs 2024 several languages available
Title: Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity
Content: globally, about $2,443 trillion spent in 2023 on military & arms; average $306 per person of global population. Highlights countries with greatest rise; also about the prevalence of the NATO policy setting a level of 2% of GDP for military spending – now seen in other non-NATO countries, like Brazil
8) Data on military emissions, war and health
Source: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW): Peace & Health Blog webpage size: about 2pgs 2024 English
Title: Military emissions compound the costs and consequences of war
Content: The Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) estimates that the world’s militaries may be responsible for 5.5 percent of global emissions, “a proportion so great that it can no longer be ignored.” Despite the significant contribution of military emissions globally to the climate crisis—quite apart from the huge distraction of resources and attention from the climate crisis that conflicts provide—there is much work to be done in getting the issue on national and international agendas. Points out that the costs of rebuilding Gaza will have to include what to do with all of the massive amounts of concrete rubble caused by the bombing of urban infrastructure. Links to a number of other resources, e.g., (1) Conflict & Environment Observatory: New estimate: global military is responsible for more emissions than Russia. (2) Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR): Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions. (3) SGR: “Always money for war”, reflecting on COP28. (4) University of Exeter: Global Systems Institute: Global Tipping Points, Report 2023
9) Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries
Source: Science Journal, Science Advances, Research article: environmental studies. Webpage; with link to downloadable full article size: 16pgs 2023 English
Title: Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries
Content: This planetary boundaries framework update finds that six of the nine boundaries are transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. Ocean acidification is close to being breached, while aerosol loading regionally exceeds the boundary. Stratospheric ozone levels have slightly recovered. The transgression level has increased for all boundaries earlier identified as overstepped. As primary production drives Earth system biosphere functions, human appropriation of net primary production is proposed as a control variable for functional biosphere integrity. This boundary is also transgressed. Earth system modeling of different levels of the transgression of the climate and land system change boundaries illustrates that these anthropogenic impacts on Earth system must be considered in a systemic context. Implies that low/falling global resilience is needed more than ever to cope with increasing anthropogenic disturbances.
Source: Future of Life Podcast. Size: 1:26:28 hrs/min 2024 English
Title: Annie Jacobsen on Nuclear War – a Second by Second Timeline. How nuclear war happens
Content: Annie Jacobsen joins the podcast to lay out a second by second timeline for how nuclear war could happen. Also discusses time pressure, submarines, interceptor missiles, cyberattacks, and concentration of power.
11) Loewenstein on today's weapons laboratories (CNN interview)
Source: CNN interview with Antony Loewenstein. Video on YouTube size: 5:52 min English
Title: CNN interview on The Palestine Laboratory and Israel's war on Gaza
Content: Interview with investigative journalist, author and film-maker Antony Loewenstein on how Palestine is used as a weapons development laboratory and how Israel tests weapons in Gaza.
12) Mechanisms of media indoctrination (details about UK media, but broadly applicable)
Source: Jonathan Cook: Middle East Eye Webpage: about 17pgs. 2024 English
Title: Israel kills the journalists. Western media kills the truth of genocide in Gaza
Content: Powerful observations on the mechanisms of pro-Israeli manipulation of Western mass media and Israeli military targeting of journalists in the reality of genocide in Gaza. Western publics are being subjected to a campaign of psychological warfare, where genocide is classed as ‘self-defence’ and opposition to it ‘terrorism’. Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to its liking. They would hedge every report of a new Israeli atrocity – if they covered them at all – with a “Hamas claims” or “Gaza family members allege”. Everything would be presented in terms of conflicting narratives rather than witnessed facts. Audiences would feel uncertain, hesitant, detached. Israel could shroud its slaughter in a fog of confusion and disputation. The natural revulsion evoked by a genocide would be tempered and attenuated. For a year, the networks’ most experienced war reporters have stayed put in their hotels in Israel, watching Gaza from afar. Their human-interest stories, always at the heart of war reporting, have focused on the far more limited suffering of Israelis than the vast catastrophe unfolding for Palestinians.
13) Pope Francis on rearmament and war (short impromptu with the press)
Source: not mentioned directly, but searching Google reveals links to the same story in a Vatican news release and Catholic News (in 2022). Format: document size: ½ pg English and Italian
Title: Pope Francis: spending on weapons dirties the soul
Content: brief, emotional and moral reaction to the surging spending on militarism
14) Ralph Nader and a different, active 1 percent
Source: Yes! Magazine for Solutions Journalism. Webpage 2017 size: about 6pg
Title: Nader Calls for a Different 1 Percent
Content: Author and activist Ralph Nader wants to create a new 1 percent—one that will expose “conditions of deprivation and abuse” and champion “basic fair play.” Nader’s assessment of how concentrated wealth and power undermine democracy is clear and compelling, For Nader, breaking through entrenched structures of corporate and government power begins by raising the public’s expectations regarding democracy. Expectation levels are the “ignition switch,” stoking the public sentiments necessary for enacting progressive change. The premise of his argument is that small groups of individuals have initiated most of the significant, progressive political reforms in U.S. history—from the abolition of slavery to securing women’s right to vote, from tobacco regulation to citizen initiatives on climate change. “Take a sweeping look at history and you will discover that almost all movements that mattered started with just one or two people.” This article is based on Nader’s book: Breaking through Power: Its easier than we think (2016)
15) Revealing cartoon on pro-war propaganda
Source: Al Jazeera English/MediaTheorised/TheListeningPost animated video posted on YouTube size: 4:46 min 2017 English
Title: Noam Chomsky: The five filters of the mass media machine
Content: segments covered include: propaganda, advertisers, complicity, consent is being manufactured. Touches on the influence of media ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak, and the common enemy. The Listening Post is a media analysis show. The cartoon itself is a work of art.
16) Role of traditional elders in peacebuilding
Source: Know about Peace [organisation for Peacebuilding and Human Rights in Somaliland and the Horn of Africa] format: webpage size: about 6pgs no date, but link to full article from 2018 English
Title: The Role of Traditional Elders in Peacebuilding
Content: Somalia’s civil war provides important insight into traditional conflict resolution methods. Intra-clan conflict emerged in Somalia after the fall of Siad’s regime. Traditional elders in Somaliland mediated the conflict by holding multiple conferences to reconcile and mediate between fighting groups. Elders are respected by their community based on their age, cultural knowledge, spirituality, and virtues like wisdom and patience. Respect and age, less so, are two traits that are often considered important for mediators. Clan elders earn their status by having “a lifetime reputation as being an effective negotiator, a trusted mediator, an orator, or a wise and pious man.” Elders are respected by their community, based on age, cultural knowledge, spirituality, and virtues like wisdom and patience.
17) Seville Statement about Violence 1989
Source: UNESCO format: document size: 47pgs 1991 [written in 1986, disseminated based on decision of UNESCO in 1989] English
Title: The Seville Statement on Violence: Preparing the ground for the constructing of peace
Content: The Seville Statement on Violence is a scientific statement which says peace is possible, because war is not a biological necessity. The Statement was written by an international team of
specialists in 1986 for the United Nations sponsored International Year of Peace and its follow-up. The Statement was based on the latest scientific evidence, and it has been endorsed by scientific and professional organizations around the world. The Seville Statement says there is nothing in our biology which is an unsurmountable obstacle to the abolition of war and other institutional violence. It says that war is a social invention, and that peace can be invented to replace it. The Statement consists of an introduction, five propositions, and a conclusion. Each of the five propositions challenges a particular mis-statement that has been used to justify war and violence.
18) Smoke Screen: how states are using the war in Ukraine to drive a new arms race
Source: Transnational Institute (TNI) format: webpage size: about 13pgs 2022 English
Title: Smoke Screen: How states are using the war in Ukraine to drive a new arms race
Content: Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, western governments have pledged unprecedented financial support to militarism, citing the threat posed by the war as justification. Political leaders have repeatedly deemed this response to be reasonable, proportionate, and necessary to support Ukraine’s war effort and to deter Russia from advancing further westward. As well as sending weapons to Ukraine, states have simultaneously used the war as a smoke screen to justify replenishing, expanding and modernising their own stockpiles of armament and to bend and reshape existing arms trade regulations. This is driving unbridled militarism and a new arms race. If we interrogate the claim that militarism makes us safer, we will find that it is far more likely to stoke tension and fear, generate instability and insecurity, to provoke and prolong armed conflict, and to fuel current and future wars. Furthermore, vast sums that could otherwise be invested in health, education, and other essential social services, as well as to offset the consequences of global heating and to tackle the rising cost of energy – measures that would undoubtedly contribute to collective safety and well-being – are instead being diverted to military expenditure lining the pockets of the already highly lucrative arms industry.
Source: Al Jazeera: Israel-Palestine conflict/ How impunity fuels attacks on journalists format: webpage size: about 10 pages of text with videos 2024 English
Title: Israel is deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza: Experts. Press freedom groups point to a pattern of killing clearly identified journalists.
Content: at least 130 journalists and media workers, based on count by Reporters without Borders (RSF), killed by Israel in Gaza in less than a year after October 7, 2023. Other media rights groups have different numbers based on their own criteria, while the Government Media Office in Gaza counts the number of dead journalists and media workers at 173. This has made working as a reporter one of the deadliest professions in an already treacherous situation. The International Federation of Journalists said the mortality rate for media workers in Gaza is over 10 percent. “If there are no journalists, there’s no one who can independently verify this and tell the world.” “Then the Israeli army becomes the source of information.” Some reporters in Gaza have been able to leave, but “most of them are trapped and those that were able to leave cannot come back in.” With the death rate of reporters so high, researchers who monitor the issue told Al Jazeera that they have come to believe Israel is intentionally killing journalists and media workers, in addition to destroying Gaza’s media infrastructure. The goal is silence.
20) Targeting health care workers
Source: UN Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner Format: webpage news release 2024 English
Title: Impunity for attacks on medical facilities and health workers must end, says UN expert
Content: Eight years have passed since the adoption of the landmark Security Council resolution 2286 (3 May, 2016), condemning attacks on healthcare workers and facilities. Yet, little progress has been made by the international community to implement this resolution and end impunity for these attacks. Includes data on health worker deaths and facility closures in Gaza; with a call and a proposed programme of action.
21) Ten principles for perpetual peace
Source: Common Dreams, article by Jeffrey Sachs Format: webpage size: about 8pgs 2024 English
Title: 10 Principles for Perpetual Peace in the 21st Century: The United Nations-based structures are fragile and in need of an urgent upgrade; we should consider this one at the U.N. Summit of the Future in September.
Content: Sachs urges that we formulate and adopt a new set of principles based on key geopolitical realities of our time. (a) nuclear capability; (b) global multipolarity; (c) existence of international institutions for formulating and adopting global goals; (d) humanity’s fate is more tightly interconnected than ever. Recommended core principles: (1) Mutual respect of all nations for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations; (2) Mutual non-aggression of all nations towards other nations; (3) Mutual non-interference by all nations in the internal affairs of other nations; (4) Equality and mutual benefits in the interactions among nations; (5) Peaceful co-existence of all nations. Plus 5 principles of action: (6) The closure of overseas military bases; (7) The end of covert regime-change operations and unilateral coercive economic measures; (8) Adherence by all nuclear powers (U.S., Russia, China, U.K., France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea) to Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; (9) The commitment by all countries “not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other countries”; (10) The commitment by all nations to cooperate in protecting the global commons and providing global public goods. Paper includes multiple links to other key documents
22) Testimony at the UN Security Council Meeting
Source: Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) format: YouTube video size: 14:15 min 2023 English
Title: Jeffrey Sachs Testimony at the UN Security Council Meeting - November 20, 2023
Content: On November 20, 2023, The UN Security Council held an open debate on "Promote sustaining peace through common development" under the agenda item "Maintenance of international peace and security." SDSN President Jeffrey Sachs was invited to brief the Security Council.
23) The Greatest Evil is War– by Chris Hedges (interview, the book is highly recommended)
Source: Banyen Books format: YouTube video, podcast of book launch and interview size: 1:01:14 hr/min 2023 English
Title: Chris Hedges ~ The Greatest Evil is War
Content: Pulitzer-prize-winning author Chris Hedges discusses his new book, The Greatest Evil is War - an unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war. From the book blurb: In fifteen short chapters, Chris Hedges astonishes us with his clear and cogent argument against war, not on philosophical grounds or through moral arguments, but in an irrefutable stream of personal encounters with the victims of war, from veterans and parents to gravely wounded American serviceman who served in the Iraq War, to survivors of the Holocaust, to soldiers in the Falklands War, among others…Today it is important again to be reminded who are the victors of the spoils of war and of other unerring truths, not only in this war but in all modern wars, where civilians are always the main victims, and the tools and methods of war are capable of so much destruction it boggles the mind.
24) The politics of cultural despair (video of a lecture)
Source: The Sanctuary for Independent Media YouTube video of speech with Q&A size: 1:58:22 hr/min 2020 English
Title: Chris Hedges "The Politics of Cultural Despair"
Content: Author, activist and dissident Chris Hedges speaking at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. He examines the cultural and social forces that have given rise to extremism in the United States. He explores the myriad factors that led to the proliferation of neo-fascist militias, extremist organizations, demagogic leaders, vast social divides defined by hate, a hyper nationalism and virulent racism as well as a mass media that has descended into burlesque and fans the flames of social disintegration. Link to full text available: https://scheerpost.com/2020/10/19/chris-hedges-the-politics-of-cultural-despair/
25) The Pugwash Einstein-Russell Manifesto
Source: Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs format: webpage size: about 5pgs (with leading signatories) 1955 English
Title: Statement: The Russell-Einstein Manifesto
Content: Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful, and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race: or shall mankind renounce war?1 People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term “mankind” feels vague and abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. They can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly. And so they hope that perhaps war may be allowed to continue provided modern weapons are prohibited.
The resolution: “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.”
26) The Seville Statement on Violence
Source: UNESCO format: document size: 5pgs dated 1986, but mentions adoption in 1989 English
Title: The Seville Statement on Violence
Content: this document is shorter extract of the full document – which is resource 17) in this set of resources (see above)
27) The war you do not see – by John Pilger
Source: FilmIsNow Movies video on YouTube size: 1:33:50 hr/min 2023 English
Title: Governments and Media roles in War Propaganda | THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE | John Pilger Documentary
Content: A powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war, tracing the history of embedded and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an electronic battlefield in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. But who is the real enemy?
Source: The Guardian: Featured Essay: Israel-Gaza war, by Naomi Klein format: webpage 2024 size: about 37pgs English
Title: How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war
Content: Jewish scholar takes a hard look at the systematic conflation of Holocaust memories and the October 7th attack by Hamas – and how the media has been manipulated into inverting the oppression and genocide against Palestine. She points out strategies of emotional manipulation, uses of icons and horror with selective presentation and denial of voice. Highlighting the portrayal of good vs evil, all things in black and white. Thoroughly researched and documented, drawing on historical comparisons and contemporary interviews. Very powerful, articulate and compelling document.
29) Tribute to the journalism and films of John Pilger
Source: JohnPilger.com format: webpage size: 1pg 2024 English
Title: Mark Curtis pays tribute to the journalism and film-making of the late John Pilger
Content: A celebration of the life and legacy of John Pilger, whose journalism and films took on power, uncovered hidden agendas and gave voice to the voiceless across the world. He exposed the ruthlessness of power of governments, and was committed to holding them to account for their actions and abuses. He spoke in support of the vulnerable and marginalised – those in poverty, asylum seekers, victims of war, and indigenous citizens in countries where they are ‘unpeople’.
30) UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Source: UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) format: webpage size: about 5pgs No date (probably 2023) English
Title: Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons
Content: summary of the history of meetings to develop the treaty (done in 2017), and follow on meetings for its refinement and tracking implementation. Provides links to the full text of the treaty and associated meetings
Source: The New press format: webpage size: about 10pgs (blurb and reviews) 2024 English
Title: War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, new book by Norman Solomon
Content: An unflinching exposé of the hidden costs of American war-making written with “an immense and rare humanity”. Every election cycle, candidates across the political spectrum repudiate what has become one of the most consequential and enduring components of American foreign policy: the forever war. Yet, once the ballots have been cast and the camera crews go home, the American war machine chugs along in almost complete obscurity. This book is a “gripping and painful study” of the mechanisms behind our invisible, but perpetual, national state of war. From ever-compliant journalists serving as little more than stenographers for the Pentagon to futuristic military technology, horrifying in its destructive power, that makes dropping a bomb or pulling the trigger on a drone strike more of an abstraction than a moral calculation, Solomon’s book exposes the profoundly human consequences at home and abroad of the bipartisan commitment to war-making.
32) War, peace and human nature
Source: GoodReads format: webpage size: about 1pg No date (probably 2021) English
Title: War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views
Douglas P. Fry (Editor) (published in 2013)
Content: The chapters in this book demonstrate that humans clearly have the capacity to make war, but since war is absent in some cultures, it cannot be viewed as a human universal. And counter to frequent presumption the actual archaeological record reveals the recent emergence of war. It does not typify the ancestral type of human society, the nomadic forager band, and contrary to widespread assumptions, there is little support for the idea that war is ancient or an evolved adaptation. Views of human nature as inherently warlike stem not from the facts but from cultural views embedded in Western thinking. the chapters in this interdisciplinary volume refute many
popular generalizations and effectively bring scientific objectivity to the culturally and historically controversial subjects of war, peace, and human nature.
33) Weapons experimentation as part of war
Source: Pulitzer Center format: webpage size: about 6pg 2016 English
Title: The Cruel Experiments of Israel’s Arms Industry, by Matt Kennard
Content: Interview with Iyad Haddad, a 52-year-old human rights investigator. His home office in Ramallah displays spent ammunition, tear gas canisters, sponge bullets and shell casings. Haddad has spent the past three decades documenting the violence of the Israeli forces occupying his people's land. These ugly little pieces of memorabilia are his testament to that process. Many of these weapons have been fired on peaceful demonstrators protesting against Israel's wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank. For the weapons makers and promoters, Palestinians are not human beings worthy of respect, but subjects in one cruel experiment after another.
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