Peace Studies: The Current State of the Field, Challenges for the Future

Featuring George A. Lopez, Vice President and Director of the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, United States Institute of Peace, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh C.S.C., Professor of Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

Respondents: Ann Mische, Associate Professor of Sociology and Peace Studies and Jason A. Springs, Assistant Professor of Religion, Ethics and Peace Studies

This lecture is free and open to the public. It will be videotaped and posted afterward on the Kroc Institute’s YouTube channel.

Before joining the United States Institute of Peace in September 2013, George A. Lopez spent 27 years at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where he holds the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Chair in Peace Studies.

In this lecture, which begins a celebration honoring nearly three decades of service to the Kroc Institute and Notre Dame, Lopez will recount the evolution of the field of peace studies in recent decades, highlight current trends in peace and conflict studies, and outline major future challenges and opportunities for the further development of peace studies.

George A. Lopez’s research interests focus primarily on the problems of state violence, especially economic sanctions, gross violations of human rights, and ethics and the use of force. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 articles and book chapters, as well as five books, on economic sanctions, including The Sanctions Decade: Assessing U.N. Strategies in the 1990s.

With David Cortright and Alistair Miller, Lopez wrote “Winning without War: Sensible Security Options for Dealing with Iraq” in October 2002. This policy brief was called the most influential document for those favoring an alternative to war with Iraq.

Lopez has served in an advisory capacity to a number of foundations and organizations, including the MacArthur Foundation’s Program in Peace and International Cooperation, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the United States Institute of Peace. He also served on the United Nations Panel of Experts for monitoring and implementing UN Sanctions on North Korea.

Lopez has served as Director of the Kroc Institute’s annual Summer Institute on Teaching Peace in the 21st Century since its inception in 2009.