In 1945, after the Second World War, the international community faced more than the task of rebuilding infrastructure and institutions. It was confronted with the challenge of restoring the basis for living together and laying the foundations of a lasting peace. The Charter of the United Nations opened with a highly significant declaration, “We the peoples…”, recognising that peacebuilding had to go beyond relations between governments. Months later, UNESCO took this idea further by stating that peace could not rest solely on political and economic arrangements, but had to be founded on mutual understanding, the equal dignity of all people and the intellectual and moral solidarity of humankind.
In this context, the UNESCO Constitution highlighted the role that ideas, prejudices and perceptions play in shaping narratives that fuel mistrust and hatred between people and communities, and that can help legitimise violence and armed conflict. Building peace requires challenging the ways of thinking that legitimise violence and promoting a culture based on respect, dialogue and cooperation. This idea was enshrined in the preamble to the UNESCO Constitution, adopted in London on 16 November 1945: “Since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed.”
Every year, from 24 to 30 October, the world observes Disarmament Week, a United Nations initiative that seeks to raise awareness of the humanitarian, social and environmental consequences of weapons, encourage arms reduction, promote conflict prevention and strengthen international cooperation. The observance was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 30 June 1978 in New York, through paragraph 102 of resolution S-10/2.
Later, on 12 December 1995, the United Nations General Assembly, again in New York, adopted resolution 50/72 B, which invited governments and non-governmental organisations to continue taking an active part in Disarmament Week, with the aim of raising public awareness of the challenges of disarmament and encouraging greater participation in international efforts to promote peace.
Militarisation is not limited to weapons, armies or armed conflict. As Cynthia Enloe, Thomas Gregory and Anita Lacey have shown, it can also extend into our everyday lives and shape social relationships and institutions. When we see differences as confrontations that must necessarily produce winners and losers, we reproduce competitive dynamics that, as Morton Deutsch showed, can reinforce mistrust and hinder cooperation. Likewise, when we normalise unquestioning obedience, imposition and certain relationships of domination, we help legitimise forms of violence that can come to be seen as natural, a phenomenon linked to the concept of cultural violence developed by Johan Galtung.
Education plays an essential role in this process. Initiatives such as Youth4Disarmament, led by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, promote training and youth participation in debates on disarmament and security. Meanwhile, organisations such as Peace Boat foster peace education through cultural exchange, dialogue and the testimonies of survivors of armed conflict, while the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons drives civil society mobilisation, raises awareness of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and works to strengthen international agreements banning them.
These initiatives help broaden the debate on disarmament beyond reducing arsenals, encouraging reflection on the ideas that justify violence and fostering an understanding of security based on cooperation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
Disarmament Week offers us an opportunity to reflect on the risks and consequences of the arms race, but also on the importance of dialogue, international cooperation and citizen participation in building peace.
This raises a question that goes beyond arms reduction: how can we aspire to a less militarised society if we keep reproducing, in our relationships and institutions, the same logics of confrontation, unquestioning obedience and imposition that we seek to overcome?
Chris Moya is a software developer with postgraduate studies in Society and Technology, Social Conflict Management, and Restorative Justice. He also has extensive experience in the social sector, human rights advocacy, and peacebuilding.