Criticisms of the Department of Peace proposal

The bill appears to include an amazingly broad purview of responsibilities. Interestingly, this bill would give the US Department of Peace the authority to monitor and make recommendations to restrict the entire US arms industry, yet it provides no counter-balancing mandates to enable the proposed department to directly monitor any non-domestic arms production.

The seemingly random groupings of responsibility, and their closeness with Liberal and Democratic causes have caused some conservative observers to criticize the idea, claiming that these responsibilities overlap the responsibilities of the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Drug Czar, and Secretary of Health and Human Services and that the list was thrown together in an effort to create a department that would have clear liberal leanings and intent. The inclusion of drug rehabilitation, prison reform, and the claims that these are “peace-related activities” have drawn criticism causing some to label it the "Department of Liberalism" or the "Department of Socialism".

Similar proposals in history

The idea for the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace can be traced back to debates by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. The first formal proposal for the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace dates to 1792. This was the product of efforts by architect and publisher Benjamin Banneker and physician and educator Dr. Benjamin Rush. Their proposal called for the establishment of a "Peace Office" which was to be on equal footing with the "War Department". Their proposal also noted what it referred to as the urgent need for the establishment of, "an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country," in order to maintain the greater welfare of "these United States."

The novel 1988 (a fictional work about the upcoming 1988 presidential election published in 1985) by then-Governor of Colorado Richard Lamm, includes a very similar proposal where the third-party presidential candidate in the novel proposes a cabinet-level Agency for Peace and Conflict Resolution with a Secretary of Peace who could challenge the Secretary of Defense when necessary.

An integrated approach

We need to have an integrated approach to violence at every level of society, and dividing the two functions (i.e. Department of Peace and Department of Health) would negate this goal.

I consider the public health infrastructure to be our model, and it is effective because it is coordinated at every level, from the World Health Organization, to national agencies like our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in turn is coordinating among every State Health Department, which is in touch with hospitals and clinics and doctors, who are in touch with patients...we will be able to mount a massive response to potential outbreaks of violence (analogous to what is going on with avian flu), and prevent those outbreaks when we have the same kind of infrastructure. As Mike Abkin said in his email yesterday, this is a public health issue.

Reference: Public Forum, The Peace Alliance