The Role of Peace Museums in Promoting a Culture of Peace (2012)

Despite the age-old longing for peace, and the long history of peacemaking—and the necessity in the nuclear age to abolish war—peace museums are still relatively rare, certainly when compared with war museums. War and violence are dominant themes in school history books and war heroes are glorified in monuments and memorials. Peace and anti-war narratives are little known and forgotten and often even censored and repressed. Peace museums are an important instrument to make peace visible and contribute to peace education and the development of a culture of peace—providing a necessary counterpart to the dominant culture of war and violence.