Like many of his contemporary “parents” of the field of conflict and peace research, Chad Alger's service in the Second World War led to a search for more constructive ways of dealing with international conflict and, in his case, a focus on the United Nations (UN). |
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Frank Barnaby is a British scholar and anti-nuclear activist who has been influential in the development of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Pugwash Conference and the Oxford Research Group. He has published extensively about nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and is a respected voice on these and many other peace related issues. |
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As a Quaker and a pacifist, Landrum Bolling's interest in peace and conflict originated during World War II and led him to make founding and life-long contributions as a 'practical theorist; a practitioner and a 'theorist' about both third party involvement and activism. |
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If anyone is to be justifiably called a “parent” of the field of peace and conflict research it is Elise Boulding, who, together with her equally influential husband Kenneth, had a hand in most of the pioneering initiatives of the 1950s, the 1960s, and beyond. |
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Brigit Brocke-Utne is a well known international figure in the field of peace education. She has a particular interest in the teaching of peace and development studies in Africa, adopting a feminist standpoint in considering how to prevent the intellectual re-colonisation of that continent. She has published widely on these topics and is regarded as a leading expert in the whole movement aimed at bringing about peaceful societies through education. |
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John Burton | |
Adam Curle | |
His training as a physicist was one source of his interest in efforts to build scientific bridges between the two sides in the Cold War, but in later years he developed a strong interest in anthropology and the manner in which what in the 1960s were called “simpler societies” managed their conflicts and prevented community collapse. | |
Daniel Druckman’s work originally arose from his initial interest in negotiation behavior, but his writings cover a huge range of topics within that overall focus, including work on nationalism, the politics of base rights negotiation, the practice of peacekeeping and political conflict. His career included work for research organizations and in academia. | |
Morton Deutsch’s contribution to the peace and conflict research field has also been profound and extensive, both through his own research and through his mentoring of a whole generation of younger scholars and practitioners. | |
As a member of the generation of Scandinavian scholars who launched 'peace research' as a serious study in the 1960s, Asbjørn Eide's career has also been focused by his interest in the potential use of the law as a conflict resolution mechanism which he championed via his positions in international organizations. | |
Ingrid Eide was a founding member of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) along with her then husband Johan Galtung. Her career spans a life in Norwegian politics, activism, diplomacy and academia, and she is best known for her work on women and peace development. | |
Known as a man with a distinct love of his country - South Africa - philosophy professor 'Willie' Esterhuyse wrote a book in 1979 in which he criticized the country's system of racial segregation, Apartheid Must Die. In 1987, Esterhuyse got involved in a Track Two process in London with the ANC at the behest of the National Intelligence Service in South Africa. This process went on until1991, and had a definite effect on the release of Nelson Mandela and the possibility of the negotiations that followed that led to a new South Africa. | |
Famous throughout the world for his early co-authored work Getting to Yes and as a Law Professor and founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project in 1979, Roger Fisher has via his practice and practical scholarship been a reluctant, but very influential 'parent' of the larger peace and conflict studies field. | |
Starting with the founding of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway (PRIO) when he was only 29 years old, Johan became the 'founding father' of peace research in Europe and ultimately had a worldwide impact on our modern understanding of peace and the structure of conflict. | |
Throughout a long and distinguished career, Professor Nils Petter Gleditsch has been closely associated with the changing fortunes of Peace Research Institute in Oslo, where he has been Director, the Editor of the Journal of Peace Research and finally Research Professor. | |
Walter Isard was – like many of the Parents of the Field – a lifelong Quaker who devoted his time and talents to studying conflict and their (usually dysfunctional) consequences. He founded the Peace Research Society (International) in 1963, the Journal of Peace Science ten years later and continued his writing, travelling, and teaching up to the year of his death in 2010. |
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As a social psychologist who was among the early cohorts of conflict and peace researchers, Herb Kelman has been instrumental in defining and refining both the theory and practice of problem solving processes and seminal to work done regarding peacemaking between Palestinians and Israelis. | |
Trained as a sociologist, Louis Kriesberg ultimately became one of the most prolific publishers of texts in what became the mainstream of conflict analysis and resolution; a benevolent and much revered parent of the field. |
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From the start of his career, Sverre Lodgaard has been concerned with the threats to peace and security posed by the spread of nuclear weapons and what might be none by governments and international organisations to make the dangers less and level of human security greater. | |
With a distinguished career in U.S. diplomacy, a former Presidency of the Iowa Peace Institute, and as the founder of the Institute for Multi-track Diplomacy, Ambassador John McDonald played a major role in popularizing the concept and practice of “Track Two diplomacy.” | |
As a parent of the field, Mitchell's practice deeply informs his research and theory-building. His work as a practitioner is the basis on which his research and theorizing have grown and matured over the years. He shares this commitment with his mentor, John Burton. | |
Robert Neild is a British economist who became the first Director of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and established the Stockholm institution’s reputation as the leading source for trustworthy information about arms levels throughout the world. He subsequently became influential in the debate about non-provocative defense and human security. | |
Originally trained as natural scientists, Hanna Newcombe along with her husband Alan and Norman Alcock, abandoned this field to become core members of the history of conflict and peace studies in Canada. They all co-founded the Peace Research Institute in Dundas, Ontario, which lead to editing Peace Research Reviews, which the Newcombes ran out of the basement of their home. | |
James O’Connell is best known as the second holder of the Chair of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, a position he held with distinction between 1978 and 1995, during which time he laid the foundation for what has become one of the premier research departments in the field. Full Bio | |
Initially a social psychologist, Dean Pruitt became one of the most respected theorists in the conflict resolution field, starting with his early work on the Journal of Conflict Resolution and especially his textbook written with colleagues, Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate and Settlement. Full Bio | |
A genuine pioneer in two senses, Betty Reardon was one of the first women academics to enter and develop the new field of peace education from Teachers College at Columbia University and subsequently throughout the world, providing a strong woman’s voice in a world then dominated by men. | |
Paul Rogers, from a background in development studies, joined an embattled Department of Peace Studies at Bradford University, playing a major role in making it one of the most trustworthy, non-governmental information sources on nuclear weapons and security issues. | |
Dennis Sandole was one of the original appointees to the faculty of the M.S. program on Conflict Analysis and Resolution at GMU in 1981. He has been the mainstay of the teaching program since then and has worked with the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Partners for Democratic Change, and the Council of Europe. | |
"Hal" Saunders had a distinguished career as a US diplomat in which he was involved in the post-1973 Kissinger shuttle as part of the Middle East Process, and was later involved also in the Camp David peace talks in 1979. His subsequent work as the Director of International Affairs at the Kettering Foundation made him an expert on Track Two diplomacy, where he also developed the technique of "Sustained Dialogue" with his colleague, Randa Slim. | |
Gene Sharp's work on the theory and practice of non-violent action has been seminal and ultimately utilized as a handbook for direct political action by activists in their efforts to overthrow repressive regimes. His impact on our understanding of 'peaceful action' has been pivotal, making him a highly deserving, if somewhat out of the ordinary, 'parent' of the peace and conflict studies field. | |
J. David Singer will be remembered as the pioneer of conflict and peace studies who insisted on empirical evidence for theoretical statements as epitomized by his “Correlates of War” project, if not for the charm, wit, and sense of humor with which he led his life. |
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Carolyn Stephenson came into the peace and conflict studies field in the early 1980s but knew and worked with many of the Parents who were still active in that decade. Her thoughts on the development of “the field” from that point on are thoughtful and more than helpful in explaining why the various strands and sources have yet to coalesce into a neat and systematic whole. |
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H.W. van der Merwe: Parent of the Field Interview with Adriaan (Ampie) Muller Adriaan Muller, better known as 'Ampie,' was a professor of organizational and industrial psychology since the '60s in South Africa, and later became dean at a number of universities. He was the Senior Consultant at the Centre for Intergroup Studies (now the Centre for Conflict Resolution at the University of Cape Town) for 21 years. The main focus of his work and H.W. van der Merwe's, about whom Ampie is interviewed here, was conflict and peace studies (CAPS). | |
Through his involvement in local, racial, and urban conflicts in the U.S. for more than 30 years, as epitomized by his co-authorship of a book on the MOVE Conflict in Philadelphia, Paul Wahrhaftig and his Conflict Resolution Center in Pittsburg became founding components in the development of the Alternative Dispute Resolution [ADR] movement. | |
Coming from the social-psychological school of conflict analysis, Ralph White is recognized as a 'parent of the peace and conflict studies field' and a major influence of 'war psychology' with his early studies; how wars start, misperceptions, mutual fears, and empathizing with 'the Other.' | |
Technically, a progeny of the earliest Peace and Conflict scholars, Peter Wallensteen has been central to the development of peace research in Scandinavia, particularly via Sweden's Department at Uppsala which grants master's and doctoral degrees as well as through the empirical research done though its Conflict Data Project. | |
As someone who participated closely with the development of peace research thorough various academic and institutional ventures in a number of European countries, Håkan Wiberg was a much loved and highly respected parent of the peace and conflict studies field who is also warmly remembered for his sense of humor and his ability to inspire young scholars. | |
Clinton Fink |
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