198 Actions for Peace
Practical actions for a more peaceful and just world
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no government can suppress, a power than can transform the world.” — Howard Zinn
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Those who work for peace and justice have an extensive array of approaches available to them. Based on my experiences during the past decade working with grassroots peacebuilders around the world, I’ve mapped hundreds of actions for peace and organized the main ones into this list of 198.
Actions are organized under five main domains: 1) a peaceful life, 2) peaceful relationships, 3) peace in spaces and places, 4) a culture of peace, and 5) peace infrastructure.
I hope this list of actions will help inspire you to take creative action for peace and justice. Download the PDF handout here: 198 Actions for Peace (PDF handout)
198 Actions for Peace
A peaceful life
Care for your personal wellbeing
Foster healthy habits
1. Keep a healthy diet
2. Be active & move regularly
3. Laugh every day
4. Embrace idle time
5. Find appropriate outlets to express yourself
6. Surround yourself with inspiration
7. Celebrate your accomplishments
8. Take walks
9. Develop a practice of gratitude
10. Get sufficient sleep
Calm your mind
11. Be in the moment
12. Live simply
13. De-clutter & green your spaces
14. Spend time in nature
15. Embrace solitude
16. Be mindful of your media consumption
17. Find/use contemplative practices that work for you
Develop your competency to build peace
Develop your emotional intelligence
18. Pay attention to what you are feeling
19. Build your emotional vocabulary
20. Observe the emotions of others
21. Recognize emotional triggers & patterns
22. Discuss feelings openly
23. Cultivate patience & practice regulating your emotions
Learn about culture, conflict & inequality
24. Learn from a different culture, perspective or worldview
25. Educate yourself about systemic injustice & inequality
26. Learn about the dynamics of conflict
27. Volunteer in support of a social justice cause
28. Critically reflect on privilege & opportunity
29. Reflect on the formation of your worldview
30. Challenge your beliefs & perceptions
Nurture your creative capacities
31. Invite music & art into your life
32. Spend time with creative people
33. Put yourself in situations where you don’t know what is going to happen
34. Develop creative routines & habits
35. Create time & space for creative endeavors
Design your life
36. Explore a range of passions & interests
37. Be intentional with how you spend your time
38. Reduce stressors
39. Check your bias
40. Clarify your priorities; set intensions & goals
41. Focus on what you want (not on what you don’t want)
42. Make decisions based on your intuition
43. Notice/seize/create opportunities
44. Find a mentor
45. Build your life around something you are passionate about
46. Embrace the process
Peaceful relationships
Foster healthy relationships with those around you
47. Be fully present for others
48. Share your time freely
49. Practice deep listening
50. Observe & appreciate the good in others
51. Support others to pursue their dreams
52. Teach children to resolve conflicts peacefully
53. Hold space for those experiencing difficult times
54. Model compassionate & empathetic behavior
55. Share opportunity with persons less privileged than yourself
56. Be a mentor
Transform conflict in relationships
57. Recognize & acknowledge the humanity of others
58. Internalize to find solutions
59. Listen with empathy & practice skillful communication
60. Find common ground
61. Find ways to address grievances
62. Focus on shared interests & needs
63. Build trust & re-imagine relationships
64. Create opportunities for forgiveness, healing & reconciliation
65. Mediate a conflict or open space for dialogue
Build community
66. Find/build a tribe who shares your passion
67. Connect with others based on shared values
68. Get to know people as individuals
69. Be attentive to the needs of community members
70. Facilitate connections amongst group members
71. Take collaborative action on issues you care about
72. Diversify your personal network
73. Build trust where there is conflict or division
74. Find allies within institutions tied to dynamics of war, violence & inequality
75. Form an unconventional coalition
76. Consider the presence & needs of victims, immigrants, refugees & other marginalized communities
77. Celebrate the accomplishments of community members
Peace in spaces and places
Create spaces
78. Create spaces to promote intercultural learning
79. Create spaces to learn about social justice history/issues
80. Create safe spaces, demilitarized zones, sanctuaries or zones of peace
81. Create sacred, quiet or shared spaces
82. Plan exchanges & exposure trips
83. Create public/shared spaces
84. Transfer property to the public domain
85. Design public/community spaces collaboratively
Revitalize spaces
86. Preserve/protect diverse culture/historic sites
87. Reclaim/recreate parks, plazas & walkways
88. Make spaces accessible, inclusive & family friendly
89. Revitalize schools & educational spaces
90. Offer/remake private spaces for public use
91. Create a community garden or green shared spaces
92. Start a mural or community art project
93. Remove monuments to heroes that represent war, empire & oppression
94. Build monuments to peace heroes
Utilize shared spaces
95. Map the natural & cultural assets of your community
96. Make a community newsletter
97. Utilize public spaces for performance, art or activism
98. Share food & culture in public spaces
99. Host public concerts, lectures, films & cultural events
100. Use online spaces for collaborative action & learning
Preserve & protect natural spaces
101. Reduce your carbon footprint
102. Preserve/protect/recover natural environments
103. Defend people harmed by environmental degradation
104. Hold parties liable for environmental destruction
105. Support local, fair trade & earth friendly business
106. Vote/advocate to phase out fossil fuels
107. Promote renewable energy sources
108. Advocate for environmental justice
109. Support ethical & sustainable travel
110. Support innovations in sustainable living
A culture of peace
Dismantle cultures of violence
Make structural & cultural violence visible
111. Break cultures of silence
112. Shine light on the legacy of historic injustice/inequality
113. Research/uncover structural & cultural violence
114. Speak truth to power
Disrupt narratives that rationalize violence
115. Discredit war propaganda & myths that justify violence
116. Demystify threats & promote an understanding that violence is not innate, war not inevitable
117. Expose motivations & deceptive tactics of hate groups, corrupt leaders & others who rationalize violence
118. Disrupt narratives that downplay gender-based violence
119. Deconstruct nationalist ideologies & politics of division
120. Combat hate speech & humanize marginalized groups
121. Challenge gendered & racialized thinking about roles, norms & behavior; deconstruct stereotypes
122. Disrupt neo-colonial mindsets
123. Speak out against misuse of religion for discriminatory purposes, especially within your own faith group
124. Employ creative ways to shame & ridicule cultural norms & behaviors that promote violence & inequality
Build a culture of peace
Promote elements of peace in culture
125. Document peace history; celebrate peace heroes (not war heroes)
126. Harmonize diversity with unity, strength & innovation
127. Promote inclusive group/national identity
128. Reframe justice & equality as issues for everyone
129. Promote the worth, dignity & rights of all persons recognizing unique challenges of marginalized groups
130. Encourage critical reflection on cultural norms, behaviors & attitudes
131. Promote community service & social responsibility
132. Promote the value of characteristics/qualities associated with all gender identity groups
Use culture to bridge divides
133. Celebrate days of peace, human rights & social justice
134. Involve cultural icons in peace actions
135. Publicize symbolic acts of unity, defiance or forgiveness
136. Join/create public prayer, meditation & vigils for peace
137. Plan events collaboratively with diverse groups
138. Honor indigenous knowledge & spiritual wisdom
139. Re-invent language; re-name something
140. Produce/use peace imagery; re-imagine symbols
141. Create rituals that promote peace & tolerance
Teach peace
142. Educate about peace heroes & history; shift the focus from histories of war & violence
143. Teach comparative history
144. Educate about social justice issues past & present
145. Teach to understand the perspective of other cultures & worldviews
146. Teach emotional intelligence
147. Promote critical media literacy
148. Link education & community development
149. Utilize participatory methods & approaches
150. Educate or develop curriculum on themes related to peace, conflict, social justice or human rights
Leverage art & media for peace
151. Use music, performance, poetry, comedy or storytelling to raise awareness of issues or imagine peaceful futures
152. Use sports to bring people in conflict together
153. Dance or craft for a cause
154. Collaborate with diverse artists or musicians
155. Promote freedom of the press & access to information
156. Amplify peace narratives, social justice issues & marginalized voices in diverse media outlets
157. Build characters & storylines that break stereotypes
158. Portray peaceful resolution of conflict in the media
Peace infrastructure
Withdraw resources from war & violence
159. Divert spending on war towards budgeting for peace, social services, arts & culture
160. Boycott or divest from companies, governments, individuals & institutions that promote/profit from war
161. Advocate against the global arms trade, excessive military spending & military aid to entities implicated in crimes
162. Disrupt structures that support war through non-violent protest, non-cooperation & non-violent intervention
163. Change supply & demand of products & services associated with conflict dynamics
164. Reduce benefits for elites in waging/continuing war or violent activities; increase incentives for peace
165. Hold leaders to account for promoting war
Reform structures & institutions
Reform structures tied to the dynamics of war & violence
166. Demilitarize defense & security
167. Promote disarmament, demobilization & reintegration
168. Use military & police for peaceful purposes
169. Demilitarize police & security personnel
Reform structures that produce inequality
170. Advocate for (or create) mechanisms for accountability & transparency; uproot corruption
171. Audit government agencies to ensure balanced delivery of services & contributions to distributive justice
172. Promote mechanisms that support equality in housing & employment; & equal access to justice
173. Confront unjust incarceration practices & mobilize for incisive criminal justice reform
174. Remove obstacles to the upward mobility & self-determination of all peoples
175. Support & protect whistleblowers
176. Transform the dynamics of international aid
Create policies that promote peace, justice & equality
177. Produce tax policies that mitigate excessive wealth & generate funds for social services
178. Produce policies that support equal pay, guarantee dignified work & ensure living wages for all jobs
179. Promote laws for equitable sharing of natural resources
180. Promote policies for equal access to quality education, health care & social services
181. Advocate for corporate social responsibility
182. Create laws that regulate the production & sale of weaponry at the domestic & international levels
183. Reform legal, foundational & policy documents
Transform leadership & decision-making
184. Support/elect leaders that promote tolerance, peace & care for marginalized populations; confront leaders who promote nuclearization & armament
185. Open communication channels between leaders, local communities & marginalized groups
186. Promote egalitarian, democratic leadership structures & decision-making practices
187. Decentralize power & decision-making
188. Ensure equitable representation & meaningful participation of marginalized groups in decision-making
189. Promote collaborative design & management of projects & activities; embed mechanisms for reflection
190. Utilize local/indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms
Build/support peace infrastructure
191. Support the creation (or existing work) of government departments dedicated to promoting peace & justice
192. Create/support a community organization, non-profit or social enterprise working on issues you care about
193. Create/support mechanisms to report, prevent or respond to violence; or an early warning mechanism
194. Create/support structures, institutions & groups that care for marginalized communities & victims of violence
195. Create/support values based programs & projects
196. Build/offer physical structures & spaces to groups working on peace & justice issues
197. Create/support mechanisms of truth & reconciliation
198. Create/join platforms, forums or networks for peace
Certainly, there are an infinite number of actions that can be taken to build peace and justice, far beyond this list of 198. What I hope to achieve with this list is to help you generate creative ideas that you can apply to effect change on issues you care about. These actions are only effective when applied in contextually appropriate ways that address relevant issues. You may use any combination of these methods. Try to take action within each domain. And stay creative.
If there are any actions that you feel are missing from this list, please write them in a comment below and I’ll consider them for a later updated list.
Download these as a PDF handout: 198 Actions for Peace (PDF handout)