The casual observer of the Kroc Institute in 2004 would have noticed an upturn in the pace of activity and rate of growth. If 2003 was healthy in this regard, 2004 was robust! The institute launched a new graduate program, expanded its undergraduate program, produced three scholarly volumes on the resolution of ethnic conflict, published a landmark book on strategic peacebuilding, contributed prominently to the debate over (the absence of) weapons of mass destruction in pre-war Iraq, weathered the storm over the controversial appointment of a Muslim intellectual to its faculty, held a successful international conference on religion and peacebuilding in Uganda, inaugurated a global alumni network, completed a major renovation of the workplace (including the addition of needed office space), and welcomed four new faculty and staff members. Otherwise, it was business as usual.

In May, the 18th and final commencement of the one-year M.A. program saw the graduation of 24 students from 17 nations; in August, we welcomed the first class of a two-year, “enriched” M.A. program. During this year of transition, Associate Director Martha Merritt and Graduate Studies Director Cynthia Mahmood, with the able assistance of new arrival Justin Shelton, devoted countless hours to the expanded graduate program and to finalizing arrangements at several international field sites (including Jerusalem, Kampala, Nairobi, Cape Town and Davao City) where our students will serve in internships and conduct research on human rights, conflict resolution, inter-religious dialogue and the like. In fall 2004, the latest crop of M.A. candidates prepared for their upcoming field experience by taking courses designed as part of a five-track graduate curriculum. The new curriculum provides each student both a comprehensive introduction to peace studies and immersion in an area of specialization such as global politics and norms; conflict transformation; economics of sustainable development; and cultural and religious dimensions of conflict.

Not to be upstaged by the graduate program, Undergraduate Program Director Dan Philpott presided over impressive growth in student enrollment in the peace studies major and minor. Approximately 100 Notre Dame students now focus on peace and justice studies as part of their undergraduate education. That is a 50 percent expansion from the previous year, stimulated by world events, the institute’s campus-wide reputation for outstanding teaching and, not least, the excellent student advising provided by Dan and other faculty colleagues. Peace studies undergrads tend to be self-starters, as witnessed by events such as the student-led peace conference in March, which attracted students and faculty from across the United States and Canada.

Research and outreach momentum continued to build in 2004, following the successful international conference on post-accord peacebuilding in fall 2003 sponsored by the Kroc Institute’s Research Initiative on the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict. In 2004, John Darby and colleagues prepared and sent to press volumes elaborating the conference themes of post-accord violence, the role of youth in the rebuilding of war-torn societies, and the importance of truth-telling as an element of transitional justice.

George Lopez and David Cortright, Kroc’s internationally renowned experts on security and sanctions, spent the first part of the year writing, publishing and speaking about the war in Iraq. Policymakers in the United States and Europe, as well as officials of the United Nations, wanted to know more about the Lopez-Cortright research on Saddam Hussein’s military arsenal — a series of studies published before the war, which had accurately concluded that Iraq was not in possession of weapons of mass destruction. In a series of smart interventions, crowned by an essay published in the influential journal Foreign Affairs, the duo made a compelling case that sanctions had, indeed, worked in Iraq. During the second half of 2004 Lopez and Cortright turned their attention to a new initiative on counter-terrorism sponsored by the United Nations.

Philpott, in addition to earning tenure at Notre Dame and participating in a major Harvard University study of religion and politics, edited a groundbreaking volume on reconciliation as a political instrument.

Kroc professor John Paul Lederach, the leading theorist and practitioner of strategic peacebuilding, completed an Oxford University Press book on The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace.

It was a significant year for the Kroc Institute’s Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding as well. The April conference on African religion and conflict was held in Jinja, Uganda, and organized by Kroc’s own Rashied Omar, Father Tom McDermott, C.S.C., and Rockefeller visiting scholars Rosalind Hackett, Jim Smith, and Sakah Mahmud. It featured presentations and discussion by scholars and activists from Africa, Europe and North America. The mix included Jean Comaroff, the distinguished anthropologist from the University of Chicago; Charles Villa-Vicencio, a leading light of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Penda Mbow, the Senegalese Islamic feminist; and Most. Rev. John Baptist Odama, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Gulu, site of the devastating conflict between the Ugandan government and the renegade Lord’s Resistance Army. A report on the conference is found in the Summer 2004 issue of Peace Colloquy; the edited scholarly papers will be published as a book in the Kroc Institute series on religion and conflict.

The search for a Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding seemed to end successfully in January 2004 with the appointment of Geneva-based scholar and public intellectual Tariq Ramadan, catalyst of intense debate regarding the public role of Islam in Europe. By December 2004, following the revocation of his visa, Ramadan had resigned the position. One need not consult Peace Colloquy to find ample reportage on this matter, although we hope you will read the upcoming issue for our recapping of events that surrounded the appointment. If you read the papers, however, you have already formed an opinion and chosen one of the verdicts offered on Ramadan. His opponents called him a fundamentalist, an anti-Semite, a sympathizer to terrorists. His supporters, myself included, see him as an influential Muslim intellectual who rejects violence and anti-Semitism, embraces democracy and human rights, and demands internal reform of Islam along these lines. He attempts to advance these goals by speaking to, with, and from within those Muslim groups and communities that are bitterly critical of and wounded by certain Western policies and practices. Appeasing such groups and communities is not what we had in mind in inviting Ramadan into our own intellectual community, nor is it his mission. Engaging them in vigorous discussion, debate and dialogue, with the hope of promoting alternatives to violence, was and remains our goal.

That ambitious goal — promoting alternatives to violence and building collaborative relationships in the quest for justice — is realized, however modestly, through the ongoing work of my colleagues at this institute. One thinks, for example, of Larissa Fast and Gerard Powers, the most recent additions to our faculty. Fast, an expert in conflict resolution and humanitarian intervention in crisis situations, teaches essential courses in these areas, advises students who seek expertise in conflict transformation and, not least, serves as a powerful personal example by her own life of service and commitment. Powers, our new director of policy studies, has 17 years of experience as a social ethicist and administrator for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He has marshaled the intellectual resources of the institute in planning a major conference on the ethical challenges posed by the U.S. presence in Iraq. He also is giving structure and focus to the nascent Catholic Peacebuilding Network, an international fellowship dedicated to developing a theology of a just peace and to supporting the efforts of local Catholic peacebuilders around the world.

Fear of boasting (any further) restrains me from saying too much more about people such as Anne Hayner, who coordinated our graduate program for 18 years and now brings the same dedication to the task of encouraging and structuring the collaboration of 388 graduates of that program; Hal Culbertson, who runs things around here, and does so with uncommon good sense and fidelity to the highest administrative standards; Bob Johansen, whose latest research on the necessity of preventing genocide by early warning and peacekeeping forces reflects a career of reflection, scholarship and advocacy; or Julie Titone, our communications expert who keeps track of all of these activities and sharpens the Kroc Institute’s public profile.

Thanks to the generosity of the late Joan B. Kroc, the Notre Dame institute that bears her name has been given the freedom to shape its future to a degree few other institutions enjoy. The responsibility of using resources wisely accompanies that freedom, however, and the experiences of 2004 have deepened our awareness of what responsible stewardship entails. We have identified some of the challenges that accompany rapid growth, learned lessons from our mistakes, and done a few things right.

On to 2005!

— Scott Appleby

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