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The origin of peace movements can be traced back to the early nineteenth century, with the foundation of the first peace societies in the Anglo-Saxon world. Issues addressed by the movements include the general fight against war and promotion of peace (including internationalism), antiwar mobilization, nuclear disarmament (including nuclear test ban), mobilization against military infrastructures, and for civil service. Different phases can be discerned in the Western context: the rise of pacifism as a collective and public issue during the nineteenth and early twentieth century; the Cold War era; peace movements as part of the new social movements from the late 1960s to the late 1980s; and the post-Cold War era. The strength and specific features of peace movements vary both across time and across space depending on the specific features of each national context. Today, peace movements are seen as part of the broader family of the new social movements. Scholarly works have characterized the profile of participants in these movements as being rooted in the new middle class, displaying left-libertarian values, and sharing a common concern over social issues, but have also stressed important difference across countries in their social bases. Peace movements find their most important effects at the societal and cultural level rather than at the political level.

There is a long tradition of opposition to war and organized peace campaigns date from 1815. Since 1945, however, modern weapons technology has threatened world wide destruction and has stimulated widespread protests. This book sketches in the background of thinking about peace and resistance to war before 1945, and then examines how public opposition to nuclear weapons and testing grew in the 1950s and early 1960s. Later chapters cover the major ressurgence of nuclear disarmament campaigns in the 1980s. The book also looks at how peace protest has spread from its origins in North America and

From Veterans for Peace to the Nonviolent Peace Force, from UN initiatives to local actions by women in Colombia and Kenya, and from citizen diplomats to creative conflict resolvers to survivors of genocide, this set tells the stories of ideas, people, and worldwide organizations striving to help humanity realize its never-ending yearning for peace