Lessons From Recent Peace Movements

The author reviews and analyzes organizing experiences in peace campaigns from more than 50 years of personal organizing. The article identifies examples of conflicts within movements about strategies and tactics for attention and influence, arguing that there is no single best approach for affecting policy. Crucial to sustained activism is cooperation within a broad coalition that includes participation of religious communities. The article explains how activism on peace issues works, when it works, by influencing conduct within political institutions, generating reforms that are, at best, a fraction of what activists demand, but still extremely significant.