Study & Action Partners

Each discussion topic of Study War No More features an introductory video offered by one of our “study and action partners” from around the world.  These partners are leading global thinkers, strategists, academics, advocates and activists who are developing components of an alternative global security system.

Kozue Akibayashi, Ed.
International President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

(Discussion 8) Demilitarization & Disarmament

Kozue is a feminist peace researcher activist. She is a professor of Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, where she teaches feminist peace studies/education. In 2000, she joined the Japan section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest international women’s peace organization who has over 30 sections around the world. She was elected as International President of WILPF at its 100th anniversary in 2015. Kozue has conducted action research on the feminist peace movement, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, who has addressed the problem of sexual violence by US soldiers stationed in Okinawa since 1945. Kozue’s activism and research have been on militarism, demilitarization of security from a gender perspective. She has written on the issue in Japanese and English. She has also been active in other transnational feminist peace movements including International Women’s Network against Militarism who calls for demilitarization and decolonization of security, and Women Cross DMZ for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Mavic Cabrera Balleza
Founder and International Coordinator, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders

(Discussion 13) Involving Women in Peace & Security Decision Making

Ma. Victoria “Mavic “Cabrera-Balleza is the Founder and International Coordinator of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP). Mavic initiated the Philippine national action planning process on the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). She also served as the international consultant to Nepal’s National Action Plan.

Mavic has provided technical support in 1325 national action planning in different countries including Guatemala, Japan and South Sudan; and facilitated costing and budgeting workshops of 1325 national action plans in Georgia and Jordan. She pioneered the Localization of UNSCR 1325 and 1820 program that is regarded as a best practice example and is now implemented in 11 countries. She co-authored the book “Costing and Financing 1325”; and edited the 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013 and 2014 editions of “Women Count: Civil Society Monitoring Report on Security Council Resolution 1325.” She also edited the publication “Implementing Locally, Inspiring Globally: Localizing UNSCR 1325 in Colombia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sierra Leone and Uganda.” She leads the civil society advocacy on the use of CEDAW General Recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations as a complementary accountability mechanism to the WPS resolutions. In 2014, Mavic led the establishment of the Girl Ambassadors for Peace, a network of young women and girls in DRC and South Sudan who are leading peacebuilding efforts in local communities in those countries.

Mavic has facilitated workshops and discussions on the  Women, Peace and Security resolutions in many countries including Afghanistan, Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Japan, Liberia, Nepal, Philippines, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Uganda.  Her masteral thesis on communication strategies on UNSCR 1325 was awarded best thesis at the University of the Philippines.

Mavic is a member of the Global Funding Board of the Global Acceleration Instrument on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, a funding mechanism that supports peacebuilding work of grassroots women’s organizations in different parts of the world.

Paul K. Chappell
Peace Leadership Director, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

(Discussion 3) Debunking Myths of War

Paul K. Chappell is an international peace educator and serves as the Peace Leadership Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He graduated from West Point, was deployed to Iraq, and left active duty as a Captain. He is the author of the seven-book Road to Peace series about ending war, waging peace, the art of living, and our shared humanity. The first five published books in this series are Will War Ever End?, The End of War, Peaceful Revolution, The Art of Waging Peace, and The Cosmic Ocean. Lecturing across the United States and internationally, he also teaches courses and workshops on peace leadership and peace literacy.

Chappell grew up in Alabama, the son of a half-black and half-white father who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and a Korean mother. Having grown up in a violent household, Chappell has forged a new understanding of war and peace, rage and trauma, and vision, purpose, and hope.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations (1996-2001)
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations (2002-2007)
Founder, Global Movement for The Culture of Peace

(Discussion 4) Alternative Visions: Human Security and a Culture of Peace

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury has devoted many years as an inspirational champion for sustainable peace and development and ardently advancing the cause of the global movement for the culture of peace that has energized civil society all over the world.

He served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2001 and as the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, responsible for the most vulnerable countries of the world from 2002 to 2007.

Ambassador Chowdhury’s legacy and leadership in advancing the best interest of the global community are boldly imprinted in his pioneering initiative in March 2000 as the President of the Security Council that achieved the political and conceptual breakthrough leading to the adoption of the groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 which for the first time recognized the role and contribution of women in the area of peace and security.

Equally pioneering are his initiatives at the United Nations General Assembly in 1999 for adoption of the landmark Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and in 1998 for the proclamation of the “International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010)”.  Ambassador Chowdhury is the Founder of the New York-based the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace.

Kayla DeVault
American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Sequoyah Fellow
Gen-I (Generation Indigenous) Youth Ambassador
Board Member, National Peace Academy

(Discussion 10) Ecological Security: Protecting the Integrity of all Life 

Kayla (Shawnee/Anishinaabe) presents herself as part of the Ats’oos Dine’é clan in Navajo.  She grew up predominantly in Appalachia, but her family also spent a lot of living on the road, from Oklahoma to Canada.  Currently, she is studying Diné Studies at Diné College and recently switched from a Masters of Mechanical Engineering to American Indian Studies at Arizona State University, degrees to accompany her undergraduate studies in Civil (Geo-Environmental) Engineering and French.  Kayla, an AISES Sequoyah Fellow and Gen-I Youth Ambassador, focuses on renewable energy feasibility, energy efficiency, and tribal policy.  She is especially interested in how to uplift traditional knowledge and promote sovereignty through the reformation of laws and structures that oversee activities on tribal lands.  Kayla was a SustainUs COP22 delegate who traveled to Morocco and Standing Rock to gain solidarity between indigenous communities.   She has served on the NEJAC/EPA Youth Perspectives on Climate Change Working Group since 2016.  Recently, she accepted a Board Member position with the National Peace Academy to address issues of cultural loss and damage, such as those encountered in the ongoing #NoLoop202 issue in Phoenix.  Kayla also writes for the Good Men Project and conducts contracted research with the Diné Policy Institute and U.S. Department of Energy.

Joyce S. Dubensky
CEO, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding

(Discussion 18) Faith-Based Movements: The Role of Religion in Building Peace 

As Tanenbaum’s CEO, Joyce Dubensky leads a pioneering organization that continues to break new ground in its 25th year of combating hate and advancing religious respect.

Internationally in demand, Ms. Dubensky is a respected thought leader who speaks, trains and conducts workshops on all Tanenbaum programs including at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard University, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the International Academy of Practical Theology, the Religion News Service panel Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom, the American Academy of Religion, the United States Institute of Peace and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Ms. Dubensky has transformed Tanenbaum into a global leader working with some of the world’s leading multi-national companies, health care institutions and educators. Tanenbaum’s Peacemakers in Action Network leads the field of religious peacebuilding in its innovation and expanding influence. Ms. Dubensky has also directed significant expansion to Tanenbaum’s core programs: Workplace, Health Care, Conflict Resolution and Education.

Under her leadership, Tanenbaum has offered many firsts in the field of interreligious understanding and is known for innovative approaches and utility for experts and users alike. Ms. Dubensky directs Tanenbaum’s Combating Extremism campaign launched in September 2015, which offers free, practical resources each month to combat hatred and terror through education. In the fall 2016, Tanenbaum published its second volume on religious peacemakers edited by Ms. Dubensky, Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Peacebuilding, Volume II. Among her other Tanenbaum contributions are: the first comprehensive “how to” on religious diversity for workplace managers (Religion in the Workplace); the first comprehensive resource for providing quality care in diverse health care settings (The Medical Manual for Religio-Cultural Competency); and Tanenbaum’s Religions in my Neighborhood curriculum for elementary school children.

Ms. Dubensky holds her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she graduated with honors, and has a Master’s degree in American History from Adelphi University.

Tiffany Easthom
Executive Director, Nonviolent Peaceforce

(Discussion 11) Nonviolent Civilian-Based Defense / Civilian Peacekeeping Forces

Prior to being the Executive Director, Tiffany Easthom was Program Director for Nonviolent Peaceforce ‘s Middle East program, Country Director in South Sudan and prior to that for Sri Lanka. Tiffany holds a BA in Justice Studies and a MA Degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding from Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She also studied peacebuilding in the field in Uganda and served as Country Director for Peace Brigades International in Indonesia.

Anthony Grimes
Director of Campaigns & Strategy, Fellowship of Reconciliation

(Discussion 5) Nonviolence: A More Successful Approach

Anthony Grimes is a writer, photographer/filmmaker, human rights activist, pastor and theologian.

As an adopted “nephew” and mentee of the late Dr. Vincent Harding, Anthony roots himself in the tradition of the black-led, prophetic, freedom movement, while building new democratic and artistic possibilities. He has inspired and led several initiatives, ministries, and organizations, including the Park Hill Parish, an initiative of Mile High Ministries, which built humanizing presence in a under-resourced neighborhood in Denver. Shortly after Mike Brown’s murder, he started the Denver Freedom Riders, who grew a grassroots organizing network of over 14,000 people during the Ferguson uprising and influenced the introduction of statewide legislation reform around Black Lives Matter.

The context of the city—its jazz and hip hop elements—shapes his view as an organic intellectual. His influence has spanned several sectors and countries, from Palestine to Latin America; yet, in all of his work, he brings a singular vision of redeeming and creating the soul of America.

Anthony was recognized by Colorado State University as a Distinguished First Generation Scholar before receiving his B.A. in Speech Communication and Ethnic Studies. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Denver Seminary, and was recognized by his staff and peers with two of the top honors of the school: The Raymond Mcglaughlin Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Preaching and The Carey S. Thomas Award for Excellence in Christian Leadership and Service.

For fun, Anthony enjoys playing with his two kids, basketball, music, reading, good times with friends, and traveling.

Patrick T. Hiller
Executive Director, War Prevention Initiative
Founding Editor, Peace Science Digest
Vice-President, International Peace Research Association Foundation
Professor, Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University

(Discussion 6) Common Security: A System of Global Interdependence

Patrick T. Hiller holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University and a M.A. in Human Geography from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

He teaches at the Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University. Following an interdisciplinary approach, his work and research interests encompass war and peace, conflict resolution, peace studies, environmental issues, ethnicity, human rights, nationalism, social justice, Mexico, Latin America, social/peace movements, identity formation, culture and conflict and migration. He studied and worked on those topics while living in Germany, Mexico and the United States.

His writings and research are almost exclusively related to the analysis of war and peace and social injustice and, most often in the form of structural violence and power dynamics with an emphasis on human dignity, solidarity among all peoples, equal participation of all peoples, the role of the governments and the promotion of peace. Patrick seeks to contribute to the growth of the still young peace and conflict studies field.

Patrick is the Vice-President of the International Peace Research Association Foundation and served on the Executive Committee of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (2012-2016). He served on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War (2013-2016), he is member of the Advisory Council of the organizations International Cities of Peace and PeaceVoice/PeaceVoiceTV, member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Peace Institute, member of the Peace and Security Funders Group as well as member of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. He is the founding editor of the Peace Science Digest.

In his free time, Patrick enjoys the outdoors and is a committed triathlete. He lives in Hood River, Oregon with his wife and son.

Tony Jenkins
Education Coordinator, World Beyond War
Coordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education
Managing Director, International Institute on Peace Education

Tony Jenkins PhD has 15+ years of experience directing and designing peacebuilding and international educational programs and projects and leadership in the international development of peace studies and peace education. Tony is currently an adjunct professor of justice and peace studies at Georgetown University, George Mason University, and George Washington University. Since 2001 he has served as the Managing Director of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) and since 2007 as the Coordinator of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE). Professionally, he has been: Director, Peace Education Initiative at The University of Toledo (2014-16); Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Peace Academy (2009-2014); and Co-Director, Peace Education Center, Teachers College Columbia University (2001-2010). In 2014-15, Tony served as a member of UNESCO’s Experts Advisory Group on Global Citizenship Education.

Tony has significant experience designing and developing academic programs in peace studies and peace education including the MA Programme in Peace Education at the UN mandated University for Peace; Peace Studies Major and Minor at The University of Toledo; and Graduate Certificate Programs in Peace Education at Teachers College, Columbia University (NYC and Tokyo campuses).

His applied research is focused on examining the impacts and effectiveness of peace education methods and pedagogies in nurturing personal, social and political change and transformation. He is also interested in formal and non-formal educational design and development with special interest in teacher training, alternative security systems, disarmament, and gender.

Tony has taught graduate and undergraduate peace studies and peace education at: Teachers College Columbia University (New York and Tokyo); Jaume I, Castellon, Spain; University for Peace, Costa Rica; The University of Toledo, Ohio; and Georgetown University, George Mason University, and George Washington University, Washington, DC.

Lindsay Koshgarian
Research Director, National Priorities Project

(Discussion 12) A Sustainable Global Economy as a Foundation for Peace

Lindsay Koshgarian is Research Director at National Priorities Project, where she works to show Americans how spending and tax decisions made in Washington affect their lives. She focuses on the inherent trade-offs between military and human development spending. Before coming to NPP, she conducted economic studies on affordable housing, homelessness and workforce development for policy makers at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. She got her start as a grassroots organizer and clinic worker at Planned Parenthood in and around Philadelphia. She holds an MPP from UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in physics from University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Nagler
Founder, Metta Center for Nonviolence

(Discussion 20) Writing the New Story 

Michael Nagler is a respected scholar and voice for Gandhian nonviolence.  Professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, where he founded the Peace & Conflict Studies Program, he is also founder of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, and author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future, which won the 2002 American Book Award, and The Nonviolence Handbook, both of which have been translated into several languages. He is a frequent writer and speaker on nonviolence and related topics and facilitates workshops in meditation for the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and has lived at the community’s ashram since 1970.

David Ragland
Co-Founder and Co-director, Truth Telling Project
Visiting Professor, Pacifica Graduate Institute

David Ragland is Co-Founder and Co-director for the Truth Telling Project of Ferguson and is a Visiting Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute.  In the early days of the Ferguson Uprising, David helped to found the Truth Telling Project so that marginalized voices could be heard and part of moving society toward recognition of this experience to lay the groundwork for healing, reconciliation and social transformation. He researches and thinks about the moral dimensions of violence and trauma against vulnerable populations in the U.S as well as envisioning a world with reduced violence on all levels. As an activist, educator and scholar, his recent and past work is on the ground level- in his home community near Ferguson, Mo. David’s analysis is drawn from the radical teaching and scholarship of MLK, particularly in his description of the Triple evils of Militarism, Racism and Materialism, as an ever present part of American life.

David has recently written a chapter titled “Peace Education as an Ethical Framework to Situate Restorative Justice: Locating the Concerns of Communities of Color in Peace and Justice Discourse” in Peace Studies between Tradition and Innovation. David is a blogger for the Huffington Post and writes frequently for PeaceVoice.  He is currently working on a volume entitled “The Intellectual and Political History of Peacemakers of Color”. He is on the board of the directors for the Peace and Justice Studies Association and he is a member of the National Council for the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Betty Reardon
Founding Director Emeritus, International Institute on Peace Education

(Discussion 15) Formal, Non-formal and Informal Education

Betty A. Reardon is a world-renowned leader in the fields of peace education and human rights; her pioneering work has laid the foundation for a new cross-disciplinary integration of peace education and international human rights from a gender-conscious, global perspective.

She has been a tireless student, exponent, and practitioner of peace and peace education, mentoring and inspiring generations of educators, scholars, and activists through her teaching and scholarship. She has been instrumental in the establishment of peace education institutions and programs around the world. Her work has defined the fields of peace studies and peace education. She has published numerous articles, books, book chapters, and reports, and has presented scholarly papers at numerous scholarly meetings. Her scholarly work includes such areas of inquiry as peace studies, peace education, human rights, gender studies, and ecology. Betty continues to teach about peace education worldwide.

David Swanson
Director, World Beyond War

(Discussion 2) Global Insecurity: Understanding the “War System”

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

John Vechey
Entrepreneur & Co-Founder, Pluto VR

(Discussion 16) Technology: Creativity and Connection 

John Vechey is an entrepreneur and one of the cofounders of Pluto VR – a company that is focused on creating a highly power and emphatic “in person like” remote communication experience using augmented and virtual reality. Previously John was a cofounder of PopCap Games, makers of Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle. John sits on the board of online journalist Grist.org and is a supporter and believer in our ability to create a World Beyond War.

Cora Weiss
President, Hague Appeal for Peace

(Discussion 14: The Role of Global Civil Society)

Cora Weiss has spent her life in the movements for human rights, civil rights, women’s empowerment and peace. She is President of the Hague Appeal for Peace which brought 10,000 people together in May 1999 under the banners of Peace is a Human Right and Time to Abolish War. At that conference seeds were sown for the creation of the Global Campaign for Peace Education and for what became the Security Council Resolutions on Women Peace and Security, SCR 1325 (and 2000). She was among the civil society drafters of that unanimously adopted resolution.  Cora was President of the International Peace Bureau (2000-2006) she now serves as the IPB representative to the United Nations.

Peter Weiss

(Discussion 9) Reforming and Building Effective International Institutions

Peter Weiss was born in Vienna, in 1925 and arrived in the United States in 1941 as a refugee from Nazi Austria. After serving in the US Army and US Military Government in Germany at the end of World War II, he received a BA from St. John’s College, Annapolis, in 1949 and a JD from Yale Law School in l952.  His legal career, from which he is more or less retired, has been evenly divided between intellectual property and pro bono work in constitutional and international law and human rights.

He has served as Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Chair of the Board of the Institute for Policy Studies, President of the American Committee on Africa and President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms. He has also long been active in organizations promoting peace with justice between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ann Wright
Colonel, US Army / Army Reserves (Retired) & Former US Diplomat

(Discussion 7) Transition: From an Offensive to Defensive Posture

Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel.  She also served as a U.S. diplomat for 16 years in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia.  She resigned from the Us government in March 2003 in opposition to Bush’s war on Iraq.  Since then she has worked for peace around the world with Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Afghan Peace Volunteers among many groups. She is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.