NVC -- The Case for Peace Education - Regrowing our Cultural Roots

The Case for Peace Education - Regrowing our Cultural Roots

The Case for Peace Education

Regrowing our Cultural Roots

By Thom Bond

Every year, humanity pours trillions of dollars and millions of lives into war and violence, while investing only a sliver of that effort into teaching people how to live together in peace. The imbalance is so extreme that it’s almost invisible – like a cultural blind spot we’ve inherited from thousands of years of history and stopped questioning.

Yet once you put the numbers side by side, it becomes impossible to un-see.

 

1. The arithmetic of war: trillions for destruction

In 2024, world military expenditure reached $2.72 trillion, the highest level ever recorded and about 2.5% of global GDP.SIPRI+1 Spending has risen for a full decade and is accelerating, driven by wars in Ukraine and Gaza, rising tensions in East Asia, and a rearmament race in Europe and beyond.

But the true economic cost of violence goes far beyond official defense budgets. The Global Peace Index estimates that in 2024, the global economic impact of violence – including war, internal security, homicides, displaced people, and lost productivity – was about $19.97 trillion, or 11.6% of world GDP.PR Newswire+1

Think about that:

• Roughly 1 in every 9 dollars produced on Earth is effectively eaten by violence.

• That’s about $2,455 per person on the planet – every year.PR Newswire

And while conflicts rage, the international system is cutting back on one of the few global tools explicitly created to prevent and contain wars: UN peacekeeping. In 2025, facing funding shortfalls, the United Nations announced it would reduce its global peacekeeping force by about 25%, withdrawing 13,000–14,000 troops and police from nine missions because member states are not paying their bills. Reuters

The pattern is stark: record spending on preparing for war, and shrinking resources for managing or preventing it.

 

2. How little we spend on building peace

Now contrast those trillions with what the world spends on peacebuilding and peacekeeping – the civilian and military tools explicitly designed to prevent wars, mediate conflicts, and stabilize fragile societies.

According to the Institute for Economics and Peace:

• In 2024, global expenditure on peacebuilding and peacekeeping was about $47.2 billion.

• That is just 0.52% of total military spending and has fallen 26% in real terms since 2008.Vision of Humanity+1

Put differently:

For every $1 the world spends on peacebuilding and peacekeeping, it spends about $58 on its militaries.

And that $47.2 billion isn’t just “peace education” – it includes peacekeeping forces, mediation, and institutional support. The slice specifically devoted to Peace Education (teaching conflict resolution, nonviolent communication, cooperation, and global citizenship in schools and communities) is only a small fraction of that, spread across national education budgets, NGOs, and multilateral organizations like UNESCO. Precise global figures are hard to pin down – which is itself revealing. We meticulously track tanks and missiles, but not what we spend teaching children how not to use them.

Meanwhile, UNESCO estimates an annual financing gap of about $97 billion just for countries to reach basic education goals (SDG 4) in low- and lower-middle-income countries.UNESCO+1 That’s roughly:

• 3.6% of what the world spends on its militaries each year, or

• About 13 days of global military spending.

We are not short of money. We are short of imagination.

 

3. What Peace Education actually does

Peace Education is sometimes dismissed as soft or symbolic – a nice-to-have that can’t compete with “hard security.” The evidence says otherwise.

Education and peace at the societal level

Recent analyses from the Institute for Economics and Peace show that better educational outcomes are strongly associated with higher levels of peacefulness – including fewer internal conflicts and lower interpersonal violence.Vision of Humanity+1

They find that:

• Each additional $100 invested per person in education is linked to significant improvements in learning and completion rates, which in turn correlate with more stable, less violent societies. Vision of Humanity

Education – especially when it includes social-emotional learning, human rights, and global citizenship – strengthens the very capacities (empathy, critical thinking, cooperation) that make violent mobilization harder and peaceful problem-solving easier.

Violence prevention in schools and communities

At the program level, we have decades of data:

• Universal school-based violence-prevention programs (teaching emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and social skills) can reduce violence by around 15% in as little as six months.NCBI+1

• A National Research Council review found some early childhood and school-based programs returning $5.30 in benefits for every $1 invested, via reduced delinquency and substance abuse, with effects sustained years after support ended.NCBI

Community-level interventions show similarly stunning returns:

• The Cure Violence model, which treats violence like a contagious disease, has cut shootings and killings by 30% or more in several U.S. cities, with up to $18 saved in medical and criminal legal costs for every $1 invested.Vera Institute of Justice

• Other community violence intervention programs show $5–$41 in savings per dollar, depending on the setting.GIFFORDS+1

Even at the most basic level, one researcher’s estimate suggested that preventing a single homicide costs around $30,000 in targeted prevention programs – but the economic cost of that homicide (medical care, policing, courts, incarceration, lost earnings) is many times higher. Juvenile Justice Information Exchange+1

Peacebuilding and prevention at the macro level

Zooming out:

• Research by the Institute for Economics and Peace finds that every $1 invested in peacebuilding can reduce the cost of conflict by $16.Friends Committee

• Other analyses used by policymakers estimate that preventing conflicts from escalating into violent crises is, on average, about 60–100 times cheaper than responding after violence erupts.Congress.gov+1

In pure economic terms, peacebuilding and peace education are among the highest-return investments available to governments. But they remain chronically underfunded.

 

4. A thought experiment: what if we rebalanced?

Let’s run a simple, conservative scenario.

We know:

• Global military spending in 2024: $2.72 trillion.SIPRI+1

• Global spending on peacebuilding & peacekeeping: $47.2 billion.Vision of Humanity+1

• Estimated global economic impact of violence: $19.97 trillion.PR Newswire+1

• Average return on peacebuilding: $1 → $16 reduction in conflict costs.Friends Committee

Scenario A: Divert just 10% of military spending

Suppose the world shifted 10% of annual military spending into peacebuilding and Peace Education:

• 10% of $2.72T is $272 billion.

• Add that to the current $47.2B, and peacebuilding/peace education funding would be roughly $319 billion.

If that extra $272B performed at the average 16:1 return researchers estimate:

• $272B × 16 = $4.35 trillion reduction in the economic cost of violence.

That’s roughly 22% of the total global impact of violence ($19.97T).

In other words, a relatively modest shift in budgets – 10 cents on the defense dollar – could plausibly cut almost a quarter of the world’s violence bill, while also saving countless lives and reducing trauma, displacement, and authoritarian drift.

Scenario B: Fully closing the education financing gap

UNESCO estimates a $97 billion annual gap to fund basic education (SDG 4) in low- and lower-middle-income countries.UNESCO+1

• That $97B is only about 3.6% of global military spending.

If we fully closed that gap, and made sure Peace Education and social-emotional learning were embedded in the curriculum:

• We’d dramatically raise enrollment, completion, and learning outcomes in some of the world’s most fragile states – the same contexts where violence and conflict are most intense.

• Given the strong empirical link between education and peace, this would likely reduce the frequency and severity of conflict over the long term.Vision of Humanity+1

The UN Secretary-General recently argued that “only a fraction” of global military spending would be enough to end hunger and provide quality education for children in low-income nations, calling for a serious debate on “rebalancing military spending for a sustainable and peaceful future.”AP News

These aren’t utopian fantasies; they’re budget choices.

 

5. Why is the imbalance so extreme? A cultural blind spot

If the math is so clear, why do we tolerate this imbalance?

Part of the answer lies in deep cultural habits shaped by thousands of years of warfare:

• Security is equated with weaponry.

For most of recorded history, security meant men with weapons protecting territory. That story is baked into our myths, our national holidays, our monuments. We build statues to generals, not mediators.

• Violence is visible; peace is invisible.

A missile strike makes headlines. A generation of kids who grow up with better conflict-resolution skills does not. Budget processes respond to immediate threats more than to invisible prevention.

• Domestic and global violence are treated as separate – but they aren’t.

We talk about domestic violence, gang crime, and war as separate categories with separate funding streams. Yet research shows that the same drivers – trauma, inequality, marginalization, norms of masculinity, cultures of impunity – connect interpersonal and political violence.Mathematica+1 A world that trains people to meet conflict with force at home should not be surprised when nations do the same abroad.

• Institutions designed in the aftermath of war still prioritize war.

Many of today’s security institutions were built after World War II and the Cold War, when the primary logic was deterrence – not prevention. They have budgets, bureaucracies, and political lobbies that naturally reinforce military choices over educational ones.

Taken together, these dynamics make our enormous overinvestment in organized violence feel normal and inevitable – and our underinvestment in Peace Education seem marginal or idealistic, even when the data says otherwise.

6. The opportunity: redirecting the future

The point of highlighting this imbalance is not to suggest that all militaries can or should vanish overnight. States do face real threats, and responsible defense will remain necessary. But the current ratio – dozens of dollars for war for every dollar for peace – is wildly out of step with what we know about human security and economic logic.

Rebalancing even a fraction would have transformative effects.

What a rebalanced security strategy might include

• Mainstream Peace Education in national curricula.

• Integrate conflict resolution, nonviolent communication, media literacy, and global citizenship across grades, not as a one-off project.

• Train teachers as peace educators and community facilitators, not just content deliverers.Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission+1

• Scale up community violence prevention.

• Invest in proven community programs (like Cure Violence and similar models) that dramatically reduce shootings and retaliatory violence at relatively low cost.Vera Institute of Justice+1

• Treat these workers as part of the security system, not as peripheral social services.

• Fund peacebuilding like we fund war.

• Expand mediation, early warning, and local peace infrastructures.

• Ensure peacekeeping missions are fully funded and reoriented toward civilian protection and political solutions, not just containment.

• Measure success differently.

• Track and publicly report spending on Peace Education and prevention, just as carefully as we track military budgets.

• Incorporate indicators of reduced violence, enhanced social cohesion, and educational equity into what we call “national security.”

• Align with broader goals: climate and development.

• Military spending is not just financially costly; it is carbon-intensive, undermining climate goals. Recent analyses warn that rising NATO military spending alone could add tens or hundreds of millions of tons of CO₂ emissions annually, at enormous environmental cost.The Guardian+1 Redirecting even a portion of that toward climate-smart education and peacebuilding would yield double dividends.

 

7. A choice, not a destiny

We often talk about war as if it were a natural disaster – something that happens to us. The numbers tell a different story: war and violence are things we pay for, every year, with deliberate budget lines and political choices.

Right now, humanity is spending:

• Trillions to maintain and upgrade its capacity for organized violence.

• Billions – at best – to teach current and future generations how to handle conflict without destroying each other.

That is not fate. It is a cultural and political choice – one rooted in our past, but not binding on our future.

Recognizing this imbalance as a blind spot is the first step. The next is to treat Peace Education, peacebuilding, and violence prevention not as “soft extras,” but as core infrastructure for the survival and flourishing of human life – wherever that life may unfold, on this planet or any other we might someday inhabit.



If we can learn to spend on peace with even a fraction of the seriousness with which we spend on war, the arithmetic of the future could look very different: fewer lives lost, less wealth destroyed, more human potential unlocked.

That future is not guaranteed. Yet, with wisdom and leadership, it is achievable. 

https://www.nycnvc.org/blog/the-case-for-peace-education-regrowing-our-cultural-roots