History of the Campaign

For many years Student Peace Alliance along with The Peace Alliance formed the National Campaign for a U.S. Cabinet-level Department of Peace.  The Peace Alliance was founded in 2004 with the mission of empowering civic activism for a culture of peace. Since its founding, the organization worked to inspire and empower participation in a grassroots citizen-based campaign to establish a U.S. Department. The founding of The Peace Alliance marked the first time in history that the Department of Peace was supported by a large grassroots movement, and the founding of Student Peace Alliance in 2006 represented the first student activism behind the legislation.

The idea and vision of a Department of Peace as we know it has existed for over 70 years.  Our goal has been to make this dream a reality through a wave of citizen interest that will rise up from the American people and make itself heard in the halls of Congress.

Our Current Strategy

After evaluating our strategy for a Department of Peace and recognizing our bottom line of creating an infrastructure in our government that makes peace a priority, we have expanded our legislative strategy.  We are now actively working with a two-pronged approach of advocacy for short term programmatic change that reduces violence now and research that sets in place the foundation for long term structural change in our government.  Read more about our current legislative strategy.

The Legislation

• Supported by 71 members of the U.S. House of Representatives

• Supporting resolutions passed by the governing bodies of 35 city, county and other local administrations, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco, representing about 12.5 million people

• Endorsed by 55 organizations, including Amnesty International, NOW and Physicians for Social Responsibility

• Referred to four committees:House Oversight and Government Reform (Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement), House Foreign Affairs, House Judiciary, and House Education and Labor (Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education)

• Concept of a Department of Peace dates back to 1935 with more than 90 pieces of legislation introduced over the years