Proven Tips on How to Create World Peace (ambitious!)
World peace. We all want it. And it’s heart-breaking that in the 21st century, we still have politicians who believe killing each other, is the way to create it. Or that the way to make money is to sell weapons that kill innocent people. Also read how to help animals in war zones.
One of the best ways we can help to create world peace is to not buy into the bias and not-very-effective media, which rarely reports the full story, and does not hold war-starters to account. Get real facts at Byline Times (no ads or bias).
Why after Hitler – are media journalists still standing around watching people in grand rooms shake hands and pose for cameras, when they have so much blood on their hands?
Where are the proper journalists doing their jobs? One yell from Trump that it’s ‘fake news’, and everyone just goes silent.
Why Do the Same Countries Go to War?
If you look at those who research the answer, it’s quite interesting as the answers are pretty simple. It’s nearly always countries with oil (UK, USA, Russia, Middle East).
Often the countries have biased media (Fox News) or state media (Russia, Iran). Our own news gives soundbites – do you know why Russia invaded Ukraine or why the Middle East is always at war? Not many of us really do.
Remember the Girl Burned by Napalm?
We’ve all seen the infamous photo of Phan Thị Kim Phúc (who ran from the scene in Vietnam after being burned from a napalm attack). She spent 14 months in hospital and her brother (to her left in the photo) lost an eye).
Nick Ut (who had just watched a baby die in its grandmother’s arms) put down his camera after taking the photographer and took her to hospital. He remained friends with both siblings, she now runs The KIM Foundation, to help other child victims of war.
Is There a Solution to the Israel/Gaza War?
You would think not, but actually this war (which dates back 2000 years and got worse after a war in 1967 which left Israel with the West Bank and Gaza Strip) has seen conflict grow.
But instead of western politicians sorting things out, why don’t they listen to experts who may have one? Political writer Daniel Levin (whose father had his arm blown off in the last days of the 1948 war) says a different vision of a two-state solution could work.
It would retain aspects of one-state (freedom of employment, movement and residency with security controls). So people could live, work and study anywhere. But only vote in their own state.
Israelis living in occupied Palestine could move back if wished to Israel (with relocation papers) or remain in Palestine and follow their laws. Visit A Land for All for more information.
Seeds of Peace is a US summer camp, where they take opposing sides to have them work and play together, to become the future leaders of tomorrow (say Israeli and Palestinian teenagers). They arrive wanting to kill each other, and leave as friends.
Finding Hope in the Midst of War
The Forgiveness Project is a website set up by an Italian journalist, which interviews those who have chosen to forgive. This is big stuff: mothers who have forgiven those who have murdered their sons, adults who have forgiven parents for years of abuse and sons who have forgiven terrorist fathers.
But also it focuses on those who forgiven others in war. Recently, the founder interviewed two fathers (one from Palestine and one from Israel) who both had young daughters murdered (by an Israeli solider and two Palestinian suicide bombers respectively).
But rather continue the cycle of violence, both now work for peace organisations, to prevent such things happening again.
Treating Women Well Creates World Peace
Most countries that go to war, have issues with women. Most men are peaceful, but it’s true that (aside from Margaret Thatcher), most countries that don’t go to war are led by women (until recently that would be New Zealand, and many Scandinavian countries).
It’s not that men are more ‘violent’, but that sometimes the egos come out (think Johnson, Trump and Putin).
Malala Yousafzai was born to a Pakistani education activist (and humanitarian father). The world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate was shot in the head (along with two friends who recovered) for writing a blog on what life was like, living under the Taliban.
She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics and now campaigns for world peace and education for girls.
No Guns, No Wars: Exploring Weapon-Free Nations
It’s a colossal amount of money that England spends on the Armed Forces, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Trident (our nuclear deterrent). There are always arguments on why we need nuclear weapons etc. But what’s helpful is to look at countries that don’t have any armies. What makes us need them, when other places don’t?
Some countries worldwide have either never had or got rid of their armies, instead investing money in nature, education, people, healthcare and peaceful relations with other countries.
Costa Rica’s Bold Move to Peace
In 1948, Costa Rica came out of a short but bitter civil war. José Figueres Ferrer won power and abolished the army the same year, to keep the state focused on peace.
Money once earmarked for soldiers, helped to build classrooms and health clinics, which led to fast gains in life expectancy and literacy.
The country is now no.1 on the World Happiness Index with protected rainforests and a huge income from ecotourism.
This is an exemplary little country. We are the example for Latin America. In the next century, maybe everyone will be like us. José Figueres Ferrer
José sounds an interesting character. He served three terms as president, and during the first term, also brought banking back to national ownership, granted women and Afro-Costa Ricans the right to vote, and also offered Costa Rican nationality to people of African descent.
After becoming a successful coffee farmer and rope maker, he described himself as a ‘farmer socialist’. He built housing and provided medical care for his workers, and established a community vegetable farm to provide free food.
And if his workers could get better prices, he let them!
He sounds a bit like our George Cadbury, the successful Quaker businessman who built his workers the pretty village of Bourneville, near Birmingham. George was a strict teetotaller, and created drinking chocolate, to stop his workers drinking gin!
José’s son also went into politics and became President for a while, and now focuses on helping organisation to create a low-carbon economy, to save the planet and wildlife.
Iceland’s Path of Neutral Strength
Iceland became a republic in 1944 after centuries linked to Denmark. With a low population and a harsh surrounding sea, it needed no standing army. The The Icelandic Coast Guard and police handle protection at home.
This means money that would be used for armies, has instead been invested into geothermal energy that heats and lights homes and powers industry. It’s quite a well-off nation with one of the world’s best standards of living.
Andorra’s Timeless Neutrality
High in the Pyrenees, Andorra is one of the world’s smallest countries, sitting between France and Spain. It’s a principality (like Monaco, run by a king) but still quite diplomatic, which has kept the country out of wars for decades.
Its border of steep mountains also helps to keep it safe. It also is one of the few countries on earth, with no airport.
Unlike in England with our public spats, Andorra is ruled by two princes who get on well. But neither are local, and neither are real princes! One is the Bishop of Urgell and the other is the President of France!
It’s a bit bonkers, as this means that one of their rulers is elected by voters in another country! And the other elected by the Pope in Rome! Having said that, many people think it odd that we are ruled over by a family that was never elected either!
Andorra also had a self-proclaimed ‘world king!’
Just like our previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson who proclaimed he would like to be ‘world king’ (and did not respect responsibilities that came with the job), Andorra had Boris I (King of Andorra), who was actually Russian swindler Boris Skyossyreff. Who in 1934 declared war on the Bishop of Urgell (one of Andorra’s co-princes).
However, the Bishop arrested him and threw him out of the country! He ended up serving 25 years in a Siberian camp, before being released and dying in his 90s.
Lessons to Learn from Army‑Free Nations
Reinvesting earmarked defence funds would free up cash for the NHS, education and measures to reduce climate change (like free insulation of all older homes, which would also create thousands of skilled jobs).
We could protect our forests, build affordable homes (on wasteland, not green land home to native wildlife).
We could invest in measures to prevent floods, create state-funded help for pets and wildlife, save our endangered species, fund litter clean-ups, build walkable communities and cycle paths that linked towns, save independent shops, clear the national debt and keep communities safe.
Instead, all this money goes to fund big white elephants like Trident, because people still seem to think we are an empire that needs to get involved in wars all the time.
Nuclear systems come with waste and accident risks that last for generations. Instead, we could be like Costa Rica, and invest in people instead.
How Much is UK Defence Spending?
In 2025, the UK defence budget was projected to be almost £60 billion, almost 3% of GDP. Of course we need to keep safe, but usually selling arms to dodgy regimes and keeping Trident means we spend a colossal amount of funds that could be directed elsewhere. Why does the UK need Trident, but Austria and New Zealand (both 100% nuclear-free) don’t?
Running Trident costs around £3 billion a year, and replacing it will cost at least £205 billion, according to calculations by CND. This money by contrast could be pay for:
- Building new hospitals and funding more nurses. It costs around £100 billion to pay for 180 state-of-the-art hospitals or 1.5 million affordable homes (not on wildlife-rich land).
- Reducing NHS backlogs, by funding more doctors
- Building sustainable affordable homes and ending homelessness
- Building new schools and increasing teacher salaries
- Training young people in new skills
- Investing in better cleaner energy
The jobs lost by reducing the size of the Army and Navy could be go into new skills for renewable energy, insulating homes and other well-paid jobs to reduce bills for people nationwide, and help to stop climate change. Many also have skills to reduce terrorism and cyber-hacking.
Do Women MPs Promote Peace? What the Evidence Shows
Greenpeace
Ellie Chowns (Green MP for North Herefordshire) is a member of Giving What We Can, where she pledges to donate a portion of her salary to good causes.
You would think so, wouldn’t you (as the gentler, fairer sex). Giving women the vote is a pretty modern thing. The House of Lords only gave ‘approval’ for women over 30 to vote in 1918. And it was only in 1928, when women over 21 could vote.
Some Tories cite Margaret Thatcher as the ultimate ‘great woman leader’. Of course, miners would disagree. Ex-MP Matthew Harris once got stuck in a lift with her, and said up-close she had ‘the eyes of an exhausted woman’.
Perhaps her legacy of not looking after the most vulnerable in society began to haunt her, even before her death.
It is true that the more peaceful Scandinavian countries tend to have younger female leaders (Finland’s Green Party leader spent time in a shelter as a child, in the first country to hit ‘zero homelessness’.
Previous Green MP (and party leader) Caroline Lucas famously campaigned to get page-3 girls off the newspapers, joining the ‘news, not boobs’ campaign! She wore a slogan t-shirt in the House of Commons and was told unless she changed, she would be thrown out.
She said it was quite funny that she was getting thrown out for wearing clothes, for trying to protect vulnerable girls who were asked to take their clothes off to let men ogle them!
Not About Strident Feminism
Women-friendly politics is not about strident beliefs either way on controversial issues like abortion (this is more a personal belief based usually on faith, that likely won’t change).
A political system that is ‘women-friendly’, is more about a society where women earn the same as men, and laws are in place to protect them, like designing safer streets and handing out harsher penalties for domestic abuse (which also affects some men).
Although the Suffragette movement (which brought women the vote) was heroic in some ways, it was tragic in others. Not only did some women bomb building, but an innocent horse was injured, when one woman threw herself in its path (she had already been imprisoned twice, for hurling rocks at the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s car).
Her cause was just. But it was not the horse’s fault. Just as dolphins who had toxic paint thrown into their Bristol river home were not to blame, when a statue of a slave trader was toppled.
Would More Women Bring Peaceful Politics breaks down research on conflict, compromise, and representation, plus why results differ by country.
The evidence on world leaders and peace
There isn’t any really, other than that a lot of the northern Scandinavian countries have (or have had) female leaders, who don’t tend to invade countries or become dictators, although of course there are always a few exceptions to the rule.
It’s hard to prove, though it may mean fewer wars and less hateful speech. Men in tradition are more interested in ‘winning’, it’s hard to imagine female leaders harping on about always being ‘word beating’ and ‘the best in the world’.
Two of Reform UK’s top donors are women: Fiona Cattrell is the mother of Nigel Farage’s chief aide, and Claudia Harmsworth is the wife of owner of the Daily Mail newspaper. But 75% of all donations are from male millionaires, including deputy leader Richard Tice.
Changes that make politics less combative
A few practical changes can lower the temperature, while also making it easier for more women to stay and lead:
- Safer workplaces, real sanctions: Clear rules for bullying and harassment, enforced quickly.
- Family-friendly sitting hours and leave: Better hours reduce burnout, and widen who can serve.
- Transparent candidate selection: Open processes reduce patronage and tokenism.
- Mentoring and training: Support helps new MPs handle pressure and media traps.
- Cross-party committees and problem-solving forums: Shared work can build trust over time.
- Electoral reforms where relevant: Systems that reward coalition-building can reduce zero-sum behaviour.
