HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION

The International Peace Research Association Foundation was founded in 1990 by peace researchers who wanted to create a permanent funding base to support world-wide exchanges of peace research. The United States peace researchers, Elise and Kenneth Boulding, were some of the founders of the IPRA Foundation, which Elise directed out of her office at the University of Colorado in Boulder with the assistance of Marty Gonzales, administrative assistant and Secretary of the Foundation until 1994. The Foundation was established to further the purposes and activities of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) In its early years the Foundation raised over $100,000 to fund a “Peace-Building in the Middle East” project that resulted in an edited book, Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for States and Civil Society. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994.)

In 1993 Ted Herman, the founder of the peace studies program at Colgate University, established a Balkans fund that helped create a Balkan Peace Studies Center at the University of Sts. Cyril & Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia. Further funds have helped establish a Balkans peace park on the border between Macedonia and Albania. In 1993 the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Travel Fund was established to help pay the expenses of peace researchers to attend IPRA’s biennial conferences.

In 1994 Peace Building in Crisis Areas, an IPRA Commission, sponsored the Nonviolent Peace Teams newsletter. As of June, 1996, the newsletter project was taken over by Yeshua Moser of Non-Violence International, Bangkok, Thailand.

In 1996 when Elise Boulding moved to Massachusetts, Kevin Clements became president and Rachel Trueblood became the treasurer. The IPRA Foundation moved to George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, where President Kevin Clements was teaching. Linda Johnston took over the Senesh Fellowship application process at Antioch College. IPRAF awards a scholarship every two years of $10,000 to a woman from a developing country to support graduate work in peace studies.

In 2001 Kevin Clements stepped down as president and Michael True, a retired professor from Wooster College in Massachusetts, became the president of the IPRA Foundation. This year the IPRA Foundation established an Endowment Fund for IPRA that cannot be touched until 2007. The purpose of this Fund is to support the work of IPRA and its affiliates, including expenses and needs of the IPRA Foundation.

In 2002 IPRAF established a fund for small peace research grants up to $3,000. Board committees review applications and make granting decisions. The Foundation has averaged awarding six grants per year through 2005. These grants have resulted in books, research treatises, plays, and pilot studies for peace interventions in war torn parts of the world. Click here to see who has been awarded these grants. Beginning in 2006, a maximum of three grants will be awarded per year.

In 2003 Ian Harris from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee became president of the IPRA Foundation. He initiated new accounting procedures that included a Financial Review of the Foundation’s books, by Jon Blomberg, C.P.A. That same year the Foundation served as a pass through for IPRA members to pay their dues. This fund was requested by Katsuya Kodama, IPRA’s Secretary-General, to make subscription collection across various currencies easier.

In 2005 the IPRA Foundation accepted income from sales of The Peace Education Journal , a publication of IPRA’s Peace Education Commission produced by Taylor and Francis, LTD, in England. These funds helped pay for the expenses of running the Peace Education Commission. In 2005 IPRAF entered into an agreement with the Peace and Justice Studies Association to co-produce a seventh Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Programs. This edition profiles over 450 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral peace studies programs in 40 countries, providing information about each program’s philosophy and goals, degrees and certificates offered, and contact information. The seventh edition of the global directory was launched at the 2006 IPRA conference in Calgary, Canada.

Click here for information on the history of IPRA. At the bottom of that page you will find a wonderful PDF version of former Secretary General Katsuya Kodama's booklet on the history of IPRA; The IPRA Path.