ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the claim that Peace and Justice studies should not pretend to neutrality. It is a field of study centered on constitutive values, values that are in stark contrast to the existing power structures of society. Nursing training is designed to produce competent practitioners where competence is defined as the ability to aid the health and well-being of individuals in society. The US university – which is increasingly modeling itself on a corporation in its internal work – is, thus, deeply involved in, indeed essential to, the work of the major power centers of contemporary society. This complicity is systemic, multi-level, and multi-dimensional. If one opposes, say, militarism, then one must oppose the work of universities in making contemporary militarism possible. The chapter examines some concrete ways in which the field can retain a role within the modern university while effectively challenging the broader social systems the university is complicit in.
