---
title: "World peace, positive peace, and how do we get there? - Center for Nonviolent Communication"
description: ""
url: "https://www.cnvc.org/learn/research/world-peace-positive-peace-and-how-do-we-get-there"
date: "2026-09-18T07:56:50+00:00"
language: "en-US"
---

#  World peace, positive peace, and how do we get there?

#  A review of the following: Positive psychology: Reflections on peace education, nonviolence, and social change, US + them: Tapping the positive power of difference, and Positive relationships: Evidence-based practice across the world.

Academic Journal Article by **Levitt, Julie Meranze.** in English (2014)

 Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20(1), 100–104

Reviews the books, *Positive Psychology: Reflections on Peace Education, Nonviolence, and Social Change* by Andrew Fitz-Gibbon (2010); *US + Them: Tapping the Positive Power of Difference* by Todd L. Pittinsky (2012); and *Positive Relationships: Evidence-Based Practice Across the World* by Sue Roffey (see record [2011-30125-000](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-30125-000)).

These books explore recent paradigm shifts in envisioning peace or for Roffey, developing positive relationships. Fitz-Gibbon draws from a wide variety of perspectives to examine the role of peace education in achieving peace. Pittinsky focuses specifically on our attitudes toward the other— those different from ourselves—and explores how we can work together to transcend cultural prejudices. Roffey argues that relationship-building is key to both human and community development, and ultimately one might infer, national and international peace. Fitz-Gibbon’s collection of articles provides a wide array of perspectives that challenge us to develop nuanced ideas about what to study and how to educate our young to move toward world-wide positive peace, a fundamental prerequisite for surviving and surviving well. There is a need for specific model building, such as Pittinsky’s, in which new perspectives about group connections and peacefulness are envisioned and methodology for investigation offered. His fresh point of view about other researchers’ investigations and his use of actual geopolitical events as examples are useful in helping us readdress our own ideas about group relationships and what we want to measure.

We need reviews, such as those in Roffey’s collection, that provide inspiration for future research, programs, and interventions. Model building, here, is premature. Critically important is that Roffey’s contributors draw not only from Seligman’s Positive Psychology research and program building, but from others exploring positive peacefully-based relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

 [ Read Article ](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-09289-010)