Title 22 — Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-73
§4601 Congressional declaration of findings and purposes
Title 22 › Chapter CHAPTER 56— - UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE › § 4601
Summary
Creates an independent, nonprofit national institute to help people and the Government learn about and promote international peace. It will offer education and training, do basic and applied research, and share information about ways to prevent and settle conflicts without using violence. Congress says the nation needs stronger nonmilitary tools to prevent and manage violence. People fear nuclear war and are hurt by wars and fast global change. Many dangerous disputes have been solved by negotiation, mediation, and similar methods. There is a need to study peace across sciences and the arts, to strengthen current programs, and to provide federal leadership. A 1978 commission recommended creating such an academy as a good national investment.
Full Legal Text
Title 22, §4601
Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)The Congress finds and declares that—
(1)a living institution embodying the heritage, ideals, and concerns of the American people for peace would be a significant response to the deep public need for the Nation to develop fully a range of effective options, in addition to armed capacity, that can leash international violence and manage international conflict;
(2)people throughout the world are fearful of nuclear war, are divided by war and threats of war, are experiencing social and cultural hostilities from rapid international change and real and perceived conflicts over interests, and are diverted from peace by the lack of problem-solving skills for dealing with such conflicts;
(3)many potentially destructive conflicts among nations and peoples have been resolved constructively and with cost efficiency at the international, national, and community levels through proper use of such techniques as negotiation, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration;
(4)there is a national need to examine the disciplines in the social, behavioral, and physical sciences and the arts and humanities with regard to the history, nature, elements, and future of peace processes, and to bring together and develop new and tested techniques to promote peaceful economic, political, social, and cultural relations in the world;
(5)existing institutions providing programs in international affairs, diplomacy, conflict resolution, and peace studies are essential to further development of techniques to promote peaceful resolution of international conflict, and the peacemaking activities of people in such institutions, government, private enterprise, and voluntary associations can be strengthened by a national institution devoted to international peace research, education and training, and information services;
(6)there is a need for Federal leadership to expand and support the existing international peace and conflict resolution efforts of the Nation and to develop new comprehensive peace education and training programs, basic and applied research projects, and programs providing peace information;
(7)the Commission on Proposals for the National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution, created by the Education Amendments of 1978, recommended establishing an academy as a highly desirable investment to further the Nation’s interest in promoting international peace;
(8)an institute strengthening and symbolizing the fruitful relation between the world of learning and the world of public affairs, would be the most efficient and immediate means for the Nation to enlarge its capacity to promote the peaceful resolution of international conflicts; and
(9)the establishment of such an institute is an appropriate investment by the people of this Nation to advance the history, science, art, and practice of international peace and the resolution of conflicts among nations without the use of violence.
(b)It is the purpose of this chapter to establish an independent, nonprofit, national institute to serve the people and the Government through the widest possible range of education and training, basic and applied research opportunities, and peace information services on the means to promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world without recourse to violence.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
References in Text
The Education
Amendments
of 1978, referred to in subsec. (a)(7), is Pub. L. 95–561, Nov. 1, 1978, 92 Stat. 2143. Part B (§§ 1511–1519) of title XV of Pub. L. 95–561, which provided for the Commission on Proposals for the National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution, was set out as a note under section 1123 of Title 20, Education. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
of 1978 Amendment note under section 6301 of Title 20 and Tables.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Short Title
Pub. L. 98–525, title XVII, § 1701, Oct. 19, 1984, 98 Stat. 2649, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘United States Institute of Peace Act’.”
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
22 U.S.C. § 4601
Title 22 — Foreign Relations and Intercourse
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73