Peace education

“Si vis pacem, nosce bellum”—“If you want peace, know war”—this inversion of the famous Latin dictum “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (“If you want peace, prepare for war”), put forward by the Luxembourgish philosopher Marcel Reding, highlights the importance of education in the effective implementation of peace. Reding supplements it with a second phrase: “Si vis pacem, nosce pacem”—“If you want peace, know peace”.

At least since the interwar period, proposals have been put forward in the Grand-Duchy to advance peace education. At the International Democratic Congress for Peace held in Luxembourg in 1925, the teacher and politician Catherine Schleimer-Kill went as far as to propose to simply abolish the teaching of history in schools arguing that it had fostered the nationalistic and chauvinistic sentiments behind so many wars.

The idea more commonly embraced by peace activists is to put schools and school curricula at the service of peace by transmitting pacifist ideals—such as tolerance, dialogue, cooperation, and mediation—through subjects like history, geography, religion, ethics, and literature. In this spirit, Luxembourg began revising its school textbooks as early as the end of the First World War.

Multilateral organisations such as the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) and the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) have, since the interwar period, also worked for peace through culture, education, and knowledge. After the Second World War, the ICIC and the IIIC were replaced by UNESCO—a UN institution promoting peace through education, science, and culture—which Luxembourg joined upon its inception.

Cross-border initiatives were not limited to multilateral institutions. Organisations such as the World Association for the School as an Instrument of Peace (EIP) have brought together teachers, educators, and intellectuals from around the world to promote peace education. National projects have also emerged in post-war Luxembourg, such as various campaigns against war toys.