De-escalation Starts With Us

By Anne Barron
WILPF San Diego 

October 2021

What would the world look like if our taxes were spent on human services instead of war?

Last month marked a terrible benchmark in the U.S. war. Seventy-six years ago, the U.S. dropped two annihilating atomic bombs on the Japanese people. Japan had been an aggressively militarized society with a strong industrial base when we dropped the atomic bombs. Did we have to?

The U.S. responded to increasing Japanese military power with an arms race that temporarily created two suns in our skies. The U.S. nuclear attack instead escalated the nuclear arms race. This terrible consequence threatens human (and world) existence. The United Nations recognized this clear contradiction and finally moved in 2017 to ban atomic weapons.

The United States (with the largest nuclear arsenals) voted against the ban. This year, the Biden Administration pushed through Congress the biggest military budget ever. Militarized minds make militarized budgets. To demilitarize the budget, we as a country have to de-escalate our minds. Peace groups across the country are coming together to push Congress back from the precipice. We know that we need to de-escalate our own minds before we can de-escalate our communities and our budgets.

De-escalation is needed now, at all levels. The PRCSD, a membership organization and community clearinghouse of information on peace, social justice issues, and activities recommends a de-escalation strategy that operates everywhere, all the time. The PRCSD offers nonviolent alternatives to conflict resolution and carries on a program of peace education throughout San Diego County. The workshops and training focus on oneself, one’s community and our country. These tried and true tactics help opposing sides find some common ground, offering a basis for further dialogue. The ultimate goal is to change our culture of domination to cooperation, and reduce our own participation in the escalation. 

The PRCSD and WILPF San Diego collaborated in a presentation on “De-Escalation: Turning Down Post-Trump Escalation,” during WILPF US’s 34th Triennial Congress. This presentation explored non-violent tactics and de-escalation skills. The PRCSD and WILPF San Diego will continue to work and build together to promote peace.
Please contact us at info@prcsd.org for more information about the PRC de-escalation series and if you would like to see more training for WILPF US on de-escalation.

Anne Barron is a board member of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, heading the de-escalation training and investigating peace economies and a member of WILPF San Diego. She lives in Santee. This submission is based on her opinion piece published in the San Diego Union-Tribune during Peace Week of Action.