Waging Peace

During most periods of time, a sort of peaceful co-existence prevails and citizens can go about their daily lives without fear of widespread violence. Sometimes, however, there are times when the situation becomes increasingly tense and hostile — sometimes very rapidly — and violence erupts and escalates. We speculate that under special circumstances there are certain intentional and unintentional actions that people and institutions can take that cause this break in the everyday existence and help launch a spiral into violence. We suspect that there are a variety of ideas, policies, and other thoughts and actions that (1) could help avoid these breaks and (2) counter or neutralize the actions that lead to violence. We suggest that these can be categorized under the concept of Waging Peace. So far one of the most important insights we have uncovered is that extraordinary means (going beyond "everyday existence") are necessary to prevent this spread of violence and that this helps to warrant the active campaign of waging peace.

Note that this pattern should necessarily consider actions on the part of government, militias, etc. that are increasingly making violence more likely, since the role of this pattern is not to be presumed as to suggest ways for corrupt regimes to keep their citizens at bay.