2007-08 Year in Review

August 

• Oxford University Press accepts the Kroc Institute’s proposal to publish a multi-volume book series on strategic peacebuilding, edited by Kroc director Scott Appleby and professors John Paul Lederach and Daniel Philpott. The first volume of the Oxford Studies of Strategic Peacebuilding is expected to be released in 2009.

September

• Kroc welcomes 20 master’s in peace studies students from Argentina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Eritrea, Georgia, Korea, Liberia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Spain, the United States, Uganda, and Vietnam.

• MIT Press publishes Uniting Against Terror: Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Terrorist Threat, edited by professors David Cortright and George A. Lopez. The book argues that winning the fight against global terrorism requires a bold new approach that is based on multinational cooperation rather than military might.

• The annual Yoder Dialogues features David Smock, vice president of the United States Institute of Peace, who addresses how faith-based organizations and people of faith can be a positive force for international peace.

November

• Jonathan Schell, bestselling author whose books are credited with launching the movement to abolish nuclear weapons, speaks about nuclear dangers and dilemmas in the 1980s and today.

• Phil Donahue returns to his alma mater to screen “Body of War,” his new documentary about a young American soldier who was severely wounded in the first week of the Iraq war.

• Andrea Laidman ‘08, a political science and peace studies student, is awarded a George Mitchell Scholarship for post-graduate study in Ireland. Three other undergraduate peace studies students receive national fellowships: Brian Klein ‘08, the Scoville Peace Fellowship; Michael McKenna ‘08, the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship; and Samuel Stoner ‘08, an award from the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program.

• The annual Catholic Relief Services-Kroc Institute Peacebuilding Institute takes place on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. CRS staff and partners from 16 countries explore issues of interreligious peacebuilding and Church action for peace and justice. 

• Prof. Peter Wallensteen and colleagues present to the United Nations the results of their study, “United Nations Arms Embargoes: Their Impact on Arms Flows and Target Behaviour.” The study revealed that weapon bans do not completely stop the flow of illegal arms, but they do have a significant positive impact on the behavior of many target countries.

 January

• The Kroc Institute announces its new Ph.D. program in peace studies, established in partnership with Notre Dame’s departments of history, political science, psychology, and sociology. The program is one of the few of its kind in the world.

• Jack Mullen ‘53, chair of the Kroc Advisory Council, and his family make a generous gift to the Kroc Institute. The John R. and Diane Mullen Family Endowment will provide ongoing support for two Ph.D. fellowships.

• After months of data gathering by faculty and graduate students, developers begin building the website for the Peace Accords Matrix, an interactive database for scholars, negotiators, journalists, and peacebuilders worldwide. 

February

• The Kroc Institute presents its first ScreenPeace Film Festival, which showcases recent films that present compelling models of peacebuilding.

• Social Movements for Global Democracy, by Prof. Jackie Smith, is published by John Hopkins University Press. The book provides insights into how “democratic globalizers” are working to promote human rights and ecological sustainability.

March

• The 14th Annual Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Lectures in Ethics and Public Policy features the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, a nationally prominent social ethicist and public philosopher who teaches at Harvard University. His lectures evaluate the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ 1983 pastoral letter on nuclear weapons, “The Challenge of Peace,” of which Hehir was a chief architect. 

April

• Notre Dame installs George A. Lopez as the first Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor of Peace Studies, in recognition of his scholarship on repression and human rights violations, ethics and the use of force, and economic sanctions. Father Hesburgh, President Emeritus of Notre Dame and founder of the Kroc Institute, is a lifelong champion of peace and justice.

• More than 150 students and faculty from around the United States and overseas participate in the annual Peace Studies Student Conference, planned and organized entirely by undergraduates. This year’s conference, “Bringing Peace Down to Earth,” features keynote speaker Ellis Jones, author of the Better World Handbook and an alumnus of Kroc’s master’s program.

• Catholic Theological Union honors the Kroc Institute with its Blessed are the Peacemakers Award. The award is presented at a dinner attended by more than 800 of Chicago’s religious, civic, and business leaders.

• The Catholic Peacebuilding Network and 18 co-sponsors hold “The Future of Catholic Peacebuilding” conference at Notre Dame. More than 275 participants from 28 countries attend.

• Four Catholic bishops from regions experiencing or threatened by violent conflict discuss their role in efforts to build peace: Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja (Nigeria); Bishop Joachim Ntahondereye of Muyinga (Burundi); Msgr. Matthew Odong of the Gulu Archdiocese (Uganda); and Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja, president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia.

May

• Maureen Howard ’09 and (Elizabeth) Brennan Bollman ’09 receive the Kroc Institute Yarrow Award in recognition of their outstanding academic performance and service. Maureen is a political science and peace studies major, and Brennan is a biological sciences honors student with a minor in peace studies.

• The master’s class of 2008 graduates. Joining the Kroc alumni network are: Maurice Ouma Amollo (Kenya); Malika B. Bahovadinova (Tajikistan); Jennifer Ann Betz (USA); Christine Alison Braun (Canada); Hannah Keziah Conrad (USA); Jehan E. Elyas (Iraq); Sofia Javed (USA); Telesphore Kagaba (Rwanda); Kathryn Mansfield (USA);  Aisulu Masylkanova (Kyrgyzstan); Nuredin Netaby (Eritrea); Timothy Al Paulus (Liberia); Aylar Saparova (Turkmenistan); Hisham Soliman Abdel-Ghaffar (Egypt); Tamar Tandashvili (Georgia); Eteri Tsintsadze (Georgia); Anna K. Walther (USA); Wei Wang (China); and Kentaro Yamane (Japan).

June

• The undergraduate peace studies program continues its rapid growth. This year, 244 students are pursuing supplementary majors or minors in peace studies—a 13 percent increase over the previous year, which was a 28 percent increase over 2005-06.

• Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, by David Cortright, is published by Cambridge University Press. The book offers a history of the human striving for peace and an analysis of the religious and intellectual roots of peace movements.

July

• The Kroc Institute hires five new teaching and research faculty, who bring expertise in political conflict (human rights violations, genocide, torture, civil war, and social movements) and racial justice; Islamic law, philosophy, and political practice; the dynamics of ethno-national conflicts; religious ethics and political philosophy; and transitional justices.