This paper analyzes the role of peace education in the creation of a culture of peace from the standpoint of social psychology. To meet the current challenges to peace, it is necessary to develop programs of research, education, and intervention that are as systemic and multidimensional as violence itself. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) nascent culture of peace program offers promise in this regard. UNESCO's program is an integrated approach to peace building and post-conflict reconstruction. Peace education programs that support a culture of peace should embody these five major principles: (1) to produce systemic change, peace education must be integrated across a variety of social levels; (2) cooperative orientations are essential components of the psychological substrate for a culture of peace; (3) cooperation on superordinate goals shared by groups and individuals in conflict provides one of the best means of reducing and preventing destructive conflict; (4) empathy and multicultural understanding must be integrated into programs of peace education; and (5) there must be a thorough reorientation of the structure, content, and pedagogy of peace education toward positive peace. (EH)