Future Leadership for the Culture of Peace
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 8 Jun 2026
David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service
1 Jun 2026 – This month’s bulletin of CPNN lists many articles about those who provide leadership for a culture of peace. Which leaders can we expect to be most important in the future?
We cannot depend on leaders at the level of the nation-state. The data confirm the major conclusion of my History of the Culture of War, that the nation-state, having created a monopoly of the culture of war, has become that culture.
We see that It is not a question of the person, but their role as leader of a state that makes Trump, Netanyahou and Putin the leaders of the culture of war. This is shown by the fact that many persons who were formerly heads of state take part in the Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela, and the Elders work consistantly for a culture of peace.
Similarly, it is not a question of religion, but its role when it becomes the religion of the state, that makes religion a culture of war in Israel and Iran. This is shown by the fact that we find that Pope Leo has called for a “new culture of peace,” and has promoted peace in his recent trip to Africa and his denunciation of attempts to link religion to the culture of war.
Since the United Nations and UNESCO are ruled by nation-states, they provide very little leadership for the culture of peace. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution justifying the attack by the US and Israel against Iran. And UNESCO has apparently abandoned its one culture of peace initiative, the Biennale of Luanda. The leadership provided by UNESCO 25 years ago was only posisble as a result of the courage of Director-General Federico Mayor to oppose the demands of the richest Member States of the organization.
It is evident that we should expect to find future leadership for a culture of peace primarily in the civil society. But which leaders and which approaches can we expect to be most effective?
First is the question of global consciousness. At the present time, most people accept the leadership of the nation-state with its military-industrial complex, due largely to its support by the mass media that is controlled by rich capitalists. What is needed is an alternative to these media who serve as propaganda for the culture of war.
The global development of social media provides us a great potential. Never before have ordinary citizens been able to contact the entire world!
That is why we are working with Peace Manifesto, trying to make it viral in social media to help develop a global movement for the culture of peace. Educators and anti-war organizations are needed play a major role in the development of this consciousness. The effective use of social media by Indivisible and MoveOn in the United States is a good example of leadership in this regard.
Second is the question of governmental institutions. Again, what is needed is an alternative to the power of the nation-state.
That is why we have often proposed in this blog that regional representaives of mayors and cities should eventually control the United Nations. Organizations of mayors and cities are needed to play a major role in such a radical change in global governance.
In general, as the CPNN bulletin points out, we should look for leadership from women and from youth, especially from the Global South. They are less engaged in the culture of war that threatens the future of humanity.
We should keep an open mind and look for new approaches as well. For example, who would have thought a few years ago, that flotillas would be an effective means of raising global consciousness for peace?
As we have learned from the World Social Forums, “another world is possible.”
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Dr. David Adams is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment and coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the UN International Year for the Culture of Peace. Previously, at Yale and Wesleyan Universities, he was a specialist on the brain mechanisms of aggressive behavior, the history of the culture of war, and the psychology of peace activists, and he helped to develop and publicize the Seville Statement on Violence. Send him an email.
Go to Original – decade-culture-of-peace.org
Tags: Culture of Peace, Culture of Violence, Culture of War, Nation-State, Paradigm change, Peace Culture, United Nations
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