World peace is an issue that affects us all. I want to show through hard, scientific evidence that the world is ready for peace. Give Peace A Chance? is an attempt to do exactly that.

As a recent graduate of the University of Notre Dame majoring in Political Science, it has long been my passion to discover how the world works, particularly in terms of international relations. I’ve always found it odd that there are so many people around the world who claim to want peace and yet nations continue to fight each other and refuse to truly cooperate. There seems to be a major disconnect between people’s desires for peace and happiness in their daily, local lives and the conflicts which exist on the larger international scale. How is it possible that world peace is widely regarded as a universal good and something to strive for, but we are still unable to work together in making it a reality? Can the values of peace and happiness in our daily lives apply to the greater goal of world peace?

I want to find an answer to these age old problems.

Solution

My goal is to travel the world in an effort to study global opinions on world peace. I want to interview as many people as possible in as many places as possible to generate data on people’s views on peace and happiness both in a global context and a local one. I want to see if people’s worldviews on peace fit with views on daily life. Some sample interview questions are listed below:

1) How would you define world peace?

2) Do you support world peace?

3) Do you think world peace is possible?

4) Do you think nations should compete or cooperate?

5) Do you think individuals should compete or cooperate?

6) What is happiness?

7) Are you happy with your life as a whole?

8) What makes you happy or what would make you happy with your life?

9) What are the 5 most important things (values, people, possessions) in your life?

The final product of my study will be twofold: it will include both a documentary film of the interviews along with my travels, and a book detailing the responses of interviewees. By creating a documentary film I hope to show the emotional element of the world peace issue by capturing people’s responses to the questions on a much deeper level than being reduced to mere data points. I hope to enter the film in several documentary film festivals to share my research upon completion and publish the book either through traditional channels or self publishing on Amazon KDP. www.kickstarter.com