Peace Is Here with Avis Kalfsbeek

How AI Helped Me Make ZERO: A Field Guide to a Weaponless World (Part 1)

In this episode I share the origin story of my book ZERO: An Every Person’s Field Guide to a Weaponless World. The project began with a simple research question: Have people ever written real plans for global disarmament?

To explore the question, I opened a research conversation with my AI collaborator “G.” In this episode I read part of that exchange and explain how it led me to discover a surprisingly rich body of historical work known as General and Complete Disarmament (GCD), detailed proposals for eliminating national militaries and building systems capable of maintaining peace.

The research pointed to several key historical sources, including:

One of the central discoveries in this research is that the blueprints for disarmament were never lost. Many of them remain archived in institutions such as the United Nations and the Kennedy Presidential Library. In many ways, the work today is less about inventing a plan than about rediscovering and updating the ones that already exist.

This episode is Part 1 of the story behind the book ZERO.

You can download the book free here: www.aviskalfsbeek.com/zero 

Topics: The concept of General and Complete Disarmament; Cold War–era plans for eliminating national militaries; The Clark–Sohn proposal for world law; The McCloy–Zorin agreement between the U.S. and USSR; Why verification and inspections became the major obstacle; How a research conversation with AI helped spark the book ZERO

Bandcamp:  https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/

Peacewarts: Dept. of Chronicled Courage - The Man Who Said No (Class 4)

We study Vasili Arkhipov and his refusal to launch a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We explore how a shift in frame of mind—from combat to communication—can break the physics of escalation and serve as a manual override for broken systems.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The structural pressure of the B-59 submarine launch protocol; Reframing the Crisis: Moving from a war-mindset to a peace-focus; Arkhipov’s background: Why the K-19 experience informed his courage; Asymmetry of Restraint: Why refusal is a disciplined, active military act; The pattern of restraint: Petrov and the Norwegian Rocket incident.

Peacewarts: Chronicled Courage 101 - The First Peace Treaty (Class 3)

We enter the Hall of Records to examine the Treaty of Kadesh (1259 BC), the world's oldest surviving peace treaty. We deconstruct the myth of inevitable war by analyzing the "recorded logic" that ended a century of conflict between the Egyptian and Hittite Empires. By shifting our focus from the chariot battle to the scriptorium, we explore how peace functions as social infrastructure and a primary technology for solving problems that violence cannot touch.

Homework:

Learning Topics: Peace as Social Infrastructure; The Treaty of Kadesh (1259 BC); The Battle of Kadesh Stalemate; Reciprocal Diplomacy; The Non-Aggression Clause; The Mutual Assistance Clause; The Erasure of Human Competence; Version 1.0 of Recorded Logic.

We deconstruct the lie that humans are biologically destined for combat. By examining archaeological records and the "Long Peace" of 1815-1914, we prove that peace is a deliberate, high-maintenance labor and the actual "default" of human history.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The 100-Year Peace (1815–1914) and "Congress Diplomacy;” The Aaland Islands Dispute (1921) as a model for cancelled conflict; Archaeological evidence: Challenging the 2% violence myth; The political purpose of the "Inevitability Myth;” Human nature as a capacity for choice, not a destiny for violence.

We transition into the archives to study history as a lineage of persistence. This class defines "Erasure" as a political tool and examines the Jeannette Rankin Brigade (1968) and JFK’s "Strategy of Peace" as case studies in recovered memory and the "Great Refusal."

Homework:

Learning Topics: The Mission of the Hall of Records; Erasure vs. Realism: How curated memory shapes our expectations of conflict; The Jeannette Rankin Brigade (1968): A 50-year bridge of anti-war activism; The Great Refusal: Rankin’s votes in 1917 and 1941 as principled alternatives to the military-industrial complex; The Burial of Traditional Womanhood: The radical shift in 1968 activism.

Javier Peke Rodriguez and Peacewarts Moves to Weekly

In this transition episode, Avis shares a heartfelt appreciation for the music that sets the tone for our study of peace and announces an intentional shift in the rhythm of the Peacewarts curriculum.

The Music of the Lab

Avis shares a bit about Javier "Peke" Rodriguez, the acclaimed Spanish composer and pianist whose atmospheric and therapeutic soundscapes provide the backdrop of the Peace is Here episodes. 

A New Pacing: Peacewarts is moving to weekly.

After a month of daily episodes, the material of Peacewarts 101 is calling for more breathing room. To allow scholars more time to soak up the concepts and to allow Avis time for new writing projects—including the completion of Bullet Poof (Book 7 in the Pedro series) and continued work on The Peace Experiments book series—Peacewarts is moving to a weekly Monday release schedule.

This new pace means our curriculum will now extend through September 2027, giving us a longer, more sustainable horizon for our study.

The Roadmap Ahead

For new scholars joining us, the weekly pace makes catching up more attainable. You can find Peacewarts orientation in Episode 198 and the fictional festival in Episode 199.

Future Departments:

The Peace Stick

Avis reflects on the Tao and the nature of opposites. If peace and its opposite are on either side of the same stick, our goal is to float that stick to a part of the river where the "opposite" of peace is merely a frustrated day—kicking a stone down the road—rather than the violence of war.

Get the Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/

Peacewarts: Living Roots 101 - Subsistence as Dignity (Class 14)

We conclude our journey in the Department of Living Roots by reframing subsistence not as a state of poverty, but as the highest form of dignity and freedom. We explore how dependency has been used as a weapon through the get big or get out era and the cultural construction of peasant shame. By examining the resilience of Cuba’s organopónicos and the concept of time sovereignty, we establish that food autonomy is the ultimate form of disarmament, removing the primary levers of coercion and violence from society.

Homework:

Learning Topics: Subsistence as Dignity; The Harvest Table; Dependency as a Weapon; The Earl Butz Era; Cultural Stigmas of Traditional Farming; The Devaluation of the Hand; The Cuban Special Period (organopónicos); Time Sovereignty; Precarity Panic; The Law of Return.

We deconstruct the myth of self-sufficiency. Through the "Cowboy Myth," the global standards of the ICAO, the industrial success of Mondragon, and the history of the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996), we learn why structural interdependence is more durable than isolation.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The "Cowboy Myth" and its ecological/social impact; Logistical Entanglement: The ICAO flight standards; Mondragon (1956): Cooperative industrial interdependence; Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace (c. 1142); Resilience vs. Isolation: Lessons from Sarajevo.

Peacewarts: Dept. of Living Roots - Barter & Sharing (Class 12)

We explore how local economies built on barter, time banking, and gift systems provide security during financial instability. This class examines the Argentine economic collapse, the global TimeBank movement, and how local currencies like BerkShares insulate communities from global shocks.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The 2001 Argentine Barter Clubs (nodos); Hureai Kippu and Time Banking in Japan and the UK; Edgar Cahn and the TimeBank Mahoning County case study; The Potlatch as wealth redistribution; Local currencies and the BerkShares model.

We examine how the "throwaway culture" of modern economics conditions us to accept human expendability. This class explores the link between the Rana Plaza disaster and precarious labor, the role of e-waste in Agbogbloshie, and how military "use-it-or-lose-it" logic mirrors consumer waste.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The transition from stewardship to consumption; The Rana Plaza Collapse: The human cost of fast fashion; E-waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, as a driver of regional instability; "Use-it-or-lose-it" military budget cycles; The cultural normalization of "collateral damage."