Grinnell Peace Studies Student Conference
Peace in the 21st Century, March 2-3, 2012
The mission of the Peace Studies Program is to promote understanding of the causes of conflict and creative strategies for its peaceful resolution in our community, our nation, and our world.
Conflict occurs constantly among the people with whom we live and work, between groups in our communities, and throughout our global landscape. Conflict is so engrained in human interaction that we will never escape it. Not all conflicts are the same, however. Some are destructive, others, productive.
Why do some conflicts erupt into violence and violations of human dignity, while other conflicts find creative solutions leading to improvements in the human condition? How can we find effective ways to resolve our differences more productively? To this end, the Peace Studies Program promotes understanding of the causes of conflict and the exploration of creative strategies for preventing and resolving conflict on multiple levels, from the interpersonal to the international.
The Peace Studies Program seeks to promote opportunities for meaningful dialogue and peacebuilding through supporting programs and projects that address:
- conflict analysis, resolution/transformation or peacebuilding strategies
- prevention of and/or restorative responses to violence or violations of human dignity
- environmental, economic, and social justice projects to assure basic human rights
"Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict--alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence."
Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961), journalist and human rights activist
