THE SCHOLAR WHO WAGES PEACE
Professor Emeritus EliseBoulding legitimizes the studyof war and its end.
IT IS ONE OF THE RAREST OF COMBINATIONS: a world-class scholar who has continually challenged the academy with the depth of her activism. In the company of theoreticians, her ground-breaking research has taken shape (the founding of the International Peace Research Association in 1965, the creation of War/Peace Studies at Dartmouth in 1984, the establishment of several national peace academies). Amid the heatgenerating factions of the peace movement, Elise Boulding teacher, innovator, nominee for the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize has produced light. She speaks not only from the human wilderness of hunger, poverty, disease, and violence but from that moral wilderness of educated beings who fail to use the resources to make a difference.
"It is not that hers is the only voice," says Leonard Rieser '44, who was dean of the faculty in 1979 when she was named professor and chair of Dartmouth's Sociology Department. "It's just that the intensity sets it far apart from the rest." Born in Norway in 1920, Elise Boulding has written, lectured, and relentlessly promoted her vision of a peaceful world for nearly four decades. "I was blessed being born with a high level of energy," she says. "And even in the worst possible situations, I've never lost the ability to visualize the other and the better."
While recent world events have led many to believe that peace is breaking out all over, Dr. Boulding looks at the redefining of nation-states and sees an increasingly precarious situation and an opportunity. "The work," she says, "is just beginning."
Contemplating the possibilitiesof peace, Elise Boulding helpedestablish a new field of research.
"It is anatmosphere thatis frighteningand can producetotal silence"he says ofthe averagecourtroom. "Wecannot expectchildren toperform asadults do."
