• Nonviolent conflict resolution processes, such as diplomacy and practices like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. 
• Appropriate foreign aid to build friendships with people in poor nations, like the Peace Corps, Heifer International, The Central Asia Project.
• Support for international law, as in signing the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and participating in the International Criminal Court.
• Cooperation with other nations, such as support for the United Nations, and international efforts to eradicate polio, smallpox and AIDS.

These are stepping stones that nations can do instead of war to establish mutual security.
 

Middle East Peacebuilders: Laila Najjar and Adi Frish

It is a typical scene. Two friends in their early twenties are sitting at a coffee shop, drinking beverages while talking and laughing over inside jokes and events from the previous night. No bystander would have the slightest notion that Laila Najjar, a Palestinian Muslim, and Adi Frish, an Israeli Jew, should be mortal enemies. As they effortlessly speak to each other in both Arabic and Hebrew, one would think that the two girls are oblivious to the fact that their two peoples are involved in one of the most deep-rooted and complicated conflicts in our world’s history.

Most Israelis see Palestinians not as friends but rather potential human bombs preparing to kill innocent civilians. This certainly is not the case based on Adi’s behavior towards Laila. And despite the Palestinian sentiment that their people are victims of oppression inflicted by Israelis, Laila shows no signs of animosity towards Adi. As the pictures of hatred and violence fill media news time slots around the world on a daily basis and as politicians spend countless hours and money seeking solutions to the crisis, these two young girls offer an image and an example representing hope and peace.

South African Peacebuilders
by Sam Reis-Dennis

Twenty five years ago, South Africa was a brutally repressive police state. Four million whites ruled a majority population of over 20 million nonwhites in a segregationist, racist apartheid regime. Blacks possessed second class citizenship at best. They had virtually no rights: they lacked freedom of speech and assembly; they could not vote; their travel was severely restricted; they lacked basic healthcare; they could not own businesses in wealthy districts. For schools in black Bantustans (homelands or ghettos), the state spent about one tenth of what it spent on education in white neighborhoods.

Amid the horror of segregation, widespread discrimination, and racially motivated murders and beatings, domestic and international resistance was building, and it became increasingly clear that the regime couldn't sustain itself. Most speculated that when the regime let go, an unprecedented bloodbath would ensue.