This paper explores and identifies initiatives in the struggle against militarization. It is one of a series of working papers commissioned by the World Order Models Project in its effort to stimulate research, education, dialogue, and political action aimed at contributing to a movement for a just world order. Taking into account the political structures and restraints of different polities, the author examines normative initiatives that challenge the root assumptions of militarization and that can be linked to actual social forces working for principled demilitarization. For purposes of clarification, three systems of political action can be distinguished: the First System - the state and its support infrastructure; the Second System - the United Nations and regional international institutes; and the Third System - represented by people acting individually and collectively through voluntary institutions. The author points to the primacy of the Third System. He argues that, at the present time, the First System is generally supportive of the underlying logic of militarization. The Second System, being a dependency of the First System, is generally unable to implement demilitarization initiatives. Only the Third System is consistently able to sustain normative initiatives of consequence to demilitarization. Normative initiatives relevant to demilitarization undertaken in the Third System can aid in mobilizing effective opposition to militarization in all three systems by altering the normative effective climate, thereby producing new "creative space" for political innovation. Finally, the author provides examples of the most promising Third System normative initiatives at the global, regional, state, and individual levels. (Author/RM)