Tensions are high on the Korean Peninsula, but the rapidly escalating threats and rhetoric remind us that war is still -- not now, not ever -- not the answer.

A conversation about peace must be grounded in reality. Quaker activists bring together the prophetic and the pragmatic as they work to build peace by addressing the root causes of violent conflict.

Here at FCNL, we’re looking for two things to protect the human services that our communities rely on: significant cuts to the Pentagon budget and increased revenues. While we are finally seeing cuts to the Pentagon, the need for new revenue still exists. Revenue positive tax reform would help the government balance its books. More importantly, though, it could stop taxes from further exacerbating economic inequality.

As members of Congress await the introduction of an immigration reform bill, they will be listening carefully for feedback from their constituents on the proposed framework - this means that now is an ideal time to make your voice heard!

March 4-5 marked an historic event. Over those two days, representatives from 127 governments and 16 national and international organizations convened in Oslo, Norway to attend the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. Sponsored by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), this was the first kind of this conference ever.

Over the past few weeks, FCNL lobbyists have been meeting with many new members of Congress. One example of this is FCNL’s Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict team. So far this February, Mary Stata and I met with 19 House offices, mostly freshman members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Earlier in the month, when freshman members were really still brand new, we met in freshly-painted offices, surrounded by framed art waiting to be hung, and congressional staff still figuring out how their phones worked. For many new members who had spent years as state legislators, the question “What are your foreign policy priorities?” was an impossible one. That’s largely why we were there: to inspire new offices to think seriously about prioritizing policy that strengthens the U.S. government’s capacity to prevent mass atrocities and genocide, and to give concrete recommendations for moving forward.