Remembering John Burton: ICAR celebrates the life and work of a dear friend

At the beginning of December ICAR held the first of two events planned to commemorate the passing of Dr. John Burton in Canberra last summer. John Burton was Associate Director of what was then the Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution between 1985 and 1991. After which he “retired” to his native Australia with his wife Betty Nathan (who was present for the commemoration) to run yet another farm, which he always did in what he called his “spare” time.

John was a part of ICAR when it launched its doctoral program in 1988, accepting only ten students in the first year. He was instrumental in shaping that program and helping to expand the Master’s program, which in those days numbered between thirty-five and forty members.  A far cry from ICAR’s current annual in-take of forty-five certificate students, seventy masters students, and fifteen Ph.D. students.

The commemoration held on December 2, 2010, was a very informal gathering of John’s friends, colleagues and former students. Speakers reminisced about different stages of John’s various careers – diplomat, professor, author, and farmer. Chris Mitchell, who had been one of John’s students in London during the 1960s, talked about John as a teacher, and Dennis Sandole about John as an academic colleague. Rich Rubenstein and Kevin Avruch reminisced about John’s influence on ICAR,  Kevin laying particular emphasis on how the Burtonian idea of basic human needs had provided the Institute with an intellectual focus during the 1980s and 1990s.

Ambassador John McDonald talked about working with John while he himself had been the head of the State Department’s “Foreign Service Institute” - and about the problems they had faced jointly in getting some of their “newfangled” ideas into print. Frank Dukes, who had been one of ICAR’s  doctoral students in the early 1990s,  described what ICAR was like in the Burton years from a student viewpoint and talked about working with John on what became the USIP published 4 volume “Conflict Series” which he helped to co-edit. Finally Alan Tidwell from Georgetown University rounded off the formal memories by recalling his own time finishing a Ph.D. and visiting John in retirement in Australia.  Others present spoke about John’s time in Washington, including Joe Montville who had collaborated with Ambassador McDonald in developing the original concept of “Track Two”.

The evening was well attended and up-beat rather than solemn, although there was, inevitably, an undercurrent of sadness at the passing of such a unique and influential individual.  ICAR Director, Andrea Bartoli, closed the proceedings by commenting how appropriate it was that he could use the occasion to announce that ICAR would shortly become a “School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution” – the first in the country and a pioneering innovation that John Burton would certainly have applauded.