Pax Populi is the people-to-people peacemaking program of the nonprofit organization Applied Ethics, Inc.  Pax Populi seeks to advance peace through helpful people-to-people, community-to-community, and institution-to-institution cooperative endeavors. It is founded on the simple idea that for peace to flourish, we need to recognize in each other our shared humanity and dignity as brothers and sisters in the human family, and from a place of fellowship and goodwill seek mutually beneficial solutions to our problems. Rather than leaving peacemaking to politicians, we look to ordinary people — educators, businesspeople, people of faith, artists, scientists, and people of goodwill everywhere — to heed the call help advance peace.
The peaceful resolution of conflicts is one of the most basic and greatest ethical duties of people and one that is especially needed in this time of rapid globalization and widespread disputes arising through political, economic, cultural, and religious tensions.  As we see it, however, the solution to such problems is not to be found in isolationism or a passive pacifism that abandons others to brutality or the oppressive denial of fundamental human rights. Our commitment to peace is a commitment to work together with peoples everywhere to build flourishing societies in people-to-people, community-to-community, and institution-to-institution partnerships.
We believe we are all called to be peacemakers and through Pax Populi we are working to create methods to enable ordinary people to contribute to peaceful development through cooperative joint engagements aimed at advancing development, mutual understanding, and brotherhood.
Pax Populi was publically launched in November 2008 with its “Food for Peace in Afghanistan” project in which members of the greater-Boston Afghan community and non-Afghans met on the campus of Bentley University for a fund-raising event in which all proceeds went Oxfam America for food assistance programs in Afghanistan. To further this effort, Applied Ethics executive director, Dr. Robert E. McNulty, traveled to Afghanistan where he visited members of leaders in Afghanistan’s educational, commercial, and civil sectors in Kabul and cities to its north. Applied Ethics is in the process of developing  projects that involve educational institutions in both the United States and Afghanistan.
Although many people want to support the advancement of peace, they lack the means to enable them to effectively respond. The goal of Pax Populi is to put the tools of peacemaking into the hands of ordinary people everywhere through direct people-to-people, institution-to-institution, and community-to-community actions.
There are many serious conflicts to which we could dedicate our efforts, but initially our focus is above all on the conflict in Afghanistan. We are also deeply concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we are investigating methods to draw on the goodwill of Israelis and Palestinians to advance toward a solution to this conflict.
Pax Populi is founded on five pillars, which are as follows:
- A love and respect for others that follow from a recognition of our share humanity;
- Understanding of the complex factors and interests associated with conflicts;
- Justice for all;
- Nonviolence;
- Action.
Over the weeks and months ahead we will discuss these ideas in greater detail and describe ways in which ordinary people are joining the Pax Populi movement and step by step, trying to bring peace to conflicts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Our motto is this: “Be a peacemaker!â€
We welcome your support and participation. United in a spirit of goodness, together we will make this a more peaceful world.
To read the most recent Pax Populi blog post click here…
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