Elise Boulding: New Voices in Conflict Resolution

Abstract

This article presents a biographical account and analysis of the work and ideas of Elise Boulding as a pioneer of  peace education, peace research and peace activism. In a context where many of the leading figures in the emergence and evolution of peace research and conflict analysis are seen to be men, the article emphasises the significance of women as peacemakers and peace thinkers and the role that Elise Boulding played in this evolution of a gendered peace. Born in Norway in 1920, Elise emigrated as a child to the USA and in her academic career took a leading role in some of the key institutions that shaped the contemporary peace research community globally. She was a creative thinker who opened spaces for the 'new voices' that appears in the title of this article, exploring the place of women, children and the family in the everyday practices of peacemaking in pursuit of what she called a global civic culture of peace. The second part of the article takes the form of a partly auto-biographical account by Irene Santiago and her work in the Philippines, showing how much of what Elise Boulding argued for and represented has come to inspire contemporary peacemakers to mainstream gender analysis in the policy, theory and projects of their peace building work.