U.S. Department of Defense Wants to Prevent War

There is a stereotype that the military isn’t interested in preventing wars and that they are the ones who like to lead the charge up beaches with their guns blazing.

Yet in reality thought-leaders in the U.S. Marines Corps and U.S. Department of Defense are paving the way for their communities to think about how to avoid the huge costs of wars in lives and dollars — so often sadly wasted in war and conflict — knowing from their own personal experience that there has to be a better way.

As a part of their commitment the U.S. Marine Corps hosted a “war game” exercise, called Joint Urban Warrior, in the Washington, DC area, that included all sectors of society and international representatives. The purpose of the exercise was to explore how to prevent, rather than wage, war with a variety of actors. The full report, available here, suggests that selected actions by various U.S. agencies, diplomacy, foreign assistance, military specialists, and non-governmental organizations (like BEFORE, CARE and others) are required in countries that are threatened by conflict. The goal of prevention efforts like this is to do something before a crisis emerges in a far more cost effective way than fighting a war or sending in peacekeeper. Like-minded governments are thinking along the same lines, as is the United Nations.

Once these scenario exercises made it clearer how we could respond best, the next step is to apply such procedures to the countries that are actually appearing now on the conflict “early warning” lists. Today few organizations are involved in, let alone solely dedicated to, heading off any escalation to violent conflict and addressing emerging tensions peacefully with modest but appropriate support. BEFORE is encouraged by this movement to focus more resources on prevention.

BEFORE Governing Board member Michael Lund , Alliance for Peacebuilding Board Member Chip Hauss and Alliance for Peacebuilding member Lisa Shirch of 3D Security were invited to join the exercises.

Learn more about how BEFORE works on preventing violent conflict and supporting local leaders in their work on peace.