This book seeks to address several questions about the emergence, present state, and future of the field of peace education, and to ground the definition of the discipline in its origins - origins set in both formal institutions and informal movements. These origins are vital in imparting identity, and in nurturing the growth of both the academic discipline and the worldwide peace movement - a combination that can unify, fuel, and inspire dialogue among scholars, researchers, activists, educators, government leaders, and all individuals committed to creating cultures of peace throughout the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Peace Education.

Introduction - Peace education: past, present, and future 1. 'Duck and cover': the evolution of peace education at the beginning of the nuclear age 2. Building a global community for a culture of peace: the Hague appeal for peace global campaign for peace education (1999-2006) 3. Peace education: an impact assessment of a case study of UNESCO-APCEIU and the university for peace 4. The transformative imperative: the National Peace Academy as an emergent framework for comprehensive peace education 5. Peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises 6. Education for a culture of peace: the culture of peace news network as a case study 7. Toward a critical peace education for sustainability 8. Changing consciousness: autoethnographic mapping in a dialog group 9. An education in homecoming: peace education as the pursuit of 'appropriate knowledge' 10. Daisaku Ikeda's philosophy of peace, education proposals, and Soka education: convergences and divergences in peace education 11. Conference report: PEC at the 24th Conference of the International Peace Research Conference 12. Commentary