David Cortright

David Cortright
David Cortright - Professor Emeritus at the Keough School of Global Affairs

Academic work
Institutions	University of Notre Dame
Notable works	Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas

David Cortright is an American scholar and peace activist. He is a Vietnam veteran who is currently Professor Emeritus and special adviser for policy studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books. Cortright has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war.

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Over the decades, there's been a tremendous amount of social science research into these questions. We're now at the beginning of a period in human history where we can say there is something called peace science. War is more likely in conditions of the least amount of economic development. Probably the most significant thing we can do to prevent armed conflict in the world is to raise the level of economic development. Especially for young people - because most wars are fought by young men, especially. We have to create educational opportunities. Economic systems that provide opportunity. That allow all communities to gain access to the assets and resources that they need to improve their own economic well being. War is more likely in repressive societies where people do not have political opportunities to have some say over government. Building governance mechanisms that are inclusive, that provide opportunity for all significant communities within a particular region, those kinds of policies are critical to creating opportunities for peace. And, if you look at societies around the world where there is armed conflict, it's often between ethnic groups. But, that's often misunderstood to say, Well, ethnic groups, when they exist together, are automatically going to have conflict. That's not what the findings say. What they show is that when these ethnic groups are excluded, when one group has opportunity that is denied to another, then there are grievances that arise from those inequalities from that exclusion and marginalization process. That does lead to armed conflict. It's pretty obvious that we need governance mechanisms that are more inclusive, that are more participatory, that allow for all significant ethnic communities to have a role. Not just ethnic but religious, national, and other different forms of social identity. Another finding has to do with the role of women in society. One of the fundamental characteristics of governance that can reduce the risk of war is to have full participation for women. There is a society where there's a greater possibility for peace and the prevention of armed conflict. A lot of other characteristics, I'll just mention one more and that has to do with international cooperation with global governance, if you will. When countries work together in international institutions, they are much less likely to wage war on one another. The record on balance shows that international peacekeeping usually through the U.N., is very successful in helping to prevent the recurrence of armed conflict. And helping to police peace agreements. And bringing armed conflicts to an end and preventing their recurrence. So, peacekeeping works. Global institutions work. The more we can build cooperation, the more we can create viable, international institutions, the more likely we are to create the conditions for peace and be able to prevent war.

Biography

Cortright is a 1968 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. In 1970 he received his M.A. from New York University, and completed his doctoral studies in 1975 at the Union Institute in residence at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.^[1]

As a soldier during the Vietnam War, Cortright joined with fellow soldiers to speak out against the war as part of the GI peace movement.^[2] He was 1 of 1,365 servicemen who signed an antiwar ad in the New York Times published on November 9, 1969 (see image below).^[3]

In 1977, Cortright was named the executive director of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy (SANE), which under his direction became the largest disarmament organization in the U.S. Cortright initiated the 1987 merger of SANE and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and served for a time as co-director of the merged organization.^[4] In 2002 Cortright helped to found the Win Without War coalition in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In 2014 he joined with Tom Hayden and others from the anti-Vietnam War movement to demand that the Department of Defense change a "rose-colored portrayal" of the Vietnam War on the government agency's website.^[5] Following the 2016 Colombian peace agreement referendum, he served as Director of the Kroc Institute's Peace Accords Matrix to support implementation of the 300-page agreement.^[6]

Work

Cortright is a Professor Emeritus of the Practice at the KROC Institute for International Peace Studies and the University of Notre Dame. His areas of expertise include nonviolent social change, nuclear disarmament, use of multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of international peacemaking. He is the author or co-editor of 22 books. He has written widely on nonviolent social change, nuclear disarmament, and the use of multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of international diplomacy. He has provided research services to several foreign ministries, including those of Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands, and has advised agencies of the United Nations, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the International Peace Academy, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.^[7]

Books

He is the author or co-editor of 22 books:

A Peaceful Superpower: Lessons from the World’s Largest Antiwar Movement (New York: New Village Press, 2023);^[8] shorter booklet A Peaceful Superpower: The Movement against War in Iraq (Goshen, Ind.: Fourth Freedom Forum, 2004).
Truth Seekers: Voices of Peace and Nonviolence (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2020); published in an early edition as Buscadors de la Veritat: Veus per la pau i la noviolència (Barcelona: International Catalan Intitute for Peace, 2017)
Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War, co-edited with Barbara Doherty and Ron Carver (New York: New Village Press, 2019)
Governance for Peace: How Inclusive, Participatory and Accountable Institutions Promote Peace and Prosperity, co-authored with Conor Seyle and Kristin Wall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)^[9]
Civil Society, Peace and Power, co-edited with Melanie Greenberg and Laurel Stone (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2016).
Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict, co-edited with Rachel Fairhurst and Kristen Wall (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2015).
Ending Obama’s War: Responsible Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2011).
Towards Nuclear Zero with Raimo Väyrynen (London: IISS, Routledge, 2010).
Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for A New Political Age, 2nd ed. (Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm Publishers, 2009); first edition Gandhi and Beyond (Paradigm, 2006).
Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Uniting Against Terror: Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Terrorist Threat, co-edited with George A. Lopez (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2007).
Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005); original edition Soldiers in Revolt: The American Military Today (New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1975).
Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action, with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002).
Smart Sanctions: Targeting Economic Statecraft, co-edited with George A. Lopez (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s, with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).^[7]
Pakistan and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, co-edited with Samina Ahmed (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998 and Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999).
The Price of Peace: Incentives and International Conflict Prevention, editor (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), commissioned by The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.
Political Gain and Civilian Pain: Humanitarian Impacts of Economic Sanctions, co-edited with Thomas G. Weiss, George A. Lopez, and Larry Minear (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).
India and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, co-edited with Amitabh Mattoo (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).
Economic Sanctions: Panacea or Peacebuilding in a Post–Cold War World? co-edited with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995).
Peace Works: The Citizen's Role in Ending the Cold War (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993).
Left Face: Soldier Unions and Resistance Movements in Modern Armies, with Max Watts (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991).

References

^ "David Cortright". 24 Aug 2023.
^ "Podcast: I was part of a war that I came to see as unjust, immoral, illegal". 30 April 2019.
^ Cortright, David (8 November 2019). "I Never Expected to Protest the Vietnam War While on Active Duty". New York Times. New York City, NY. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
^ [1], Swarthmore College Peace Collection - SANE Records
^ Katie Shepherd (26 July 2016). "Activists Call for Realistic Portrayal of Vietnam War on a Pentagon Website". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
^ Beth Griffin (6 February 2018). "Church helps people in Colombia move from 'vengeance' to reconciliation". ncronline.org/. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
^ ^a ^b "David Cortright". University of Notre Dame: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
^ Hastings, Tom (10 June 2023). "A Peaceful Superpower". Journal of Peace Education. doi:10.1080/17400201.2023.2222965. S2CID 259418188.
^ Cortright, David; Seyle, Conor; Wall, Kristen (2017). Governance for Peace. doi:10.1017/9781108235471. ISBN 9781108235471.

External links

v t e Gandhi Peace Award laureates
1960–1979	1960 Eleanor Roosevelt / Edwin T. Dahlberg 1961 Maurice Eisendrath / John Haynes Holmes 1962 Linus Pauling / James Warburg 1963 E. Stanley Jones 1964 1965 1966 A. J. Muste 1967 Norman Thomas / Jerome Davis / William Sloane Coffin 1968 Benjamin Spock 1969 1970 Wayne Morse / Willard Uphaus 1971 1972 U Thant 1973 1974 1975 Dorothy Day 1976 Daniel Ellsberg 1977 1978 Peter Benenson / Martin Ennals 1979 Roland Bainton
1980–1999	1980 Helen Caldicott 1981 Corliss Lamont 1982 Randall Watson Forsberg 1983 1984 Robert Jay Lifton / Kay Camp 1985 1986 Bernard Lown 1987 John Somerville 1988 1989 César Chávez 1990 Marian Wright Edelman 1991 George McGovern 1992 Ramsey Clark 1993 Lucius Walker 1994 Roy Bourgeois 1995 Edith Ballantyne 1996 New Haven-León Sister City Project Alan Wright Paula Kline 1997 Howard / Alice Frazier 1998 1999
2000–2019	2000 2001 2002 Michael True 2003 Dennis Kucinich 2004 Karen Jacob / David Cortright 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Ehud Bandel / Arik Ascherman 2012 Amy Goodman 2013 Bill McKibben 2014 Medea Benjamin 2015 Tom B.K. Goldtooth / Kathy Kelly 2016 2017 Ralph Nader / Omar Barghouti 2018 Jackson Browne

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This page was last edited on 8 April 2024, at 05:29

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