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EUROPEBetty WilliamsNorthern IrelandPeace Activist“We are deeply, passionately dedicated to the cause ofnonviolence, to the force of truth and love, to soul-force. Tothose who say that we are naive, utopian idealists, we saythat we are the only realists, and that those who continueto support militarism in our time are supporting the progresstowards total self-destruction of the human race.”Betty Williams was born in Belfast in 1943 and went toCatholic elementary and primary schools. When she wonthe Nobel Prize for Peace in 1976 she was a 33 year-oldoffice receptionist, wife and mother of a 14 year-old son anda six-year-old daughter.Williams shared the Nobel Prize with Mairead Corrigan, whoco-founded the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (laterrenamed Community of Peace People). The movement wasinspired by an incident in which an Irish Republican Armygunman was shot dead fleeing from British soldiers. His carsmashed into a family out for a walk. Three children werekilled and their mother critically injured.Betty Williams came upon the scene after she heard theshot, and Corrigan was the aunt of the dead children. Thissenseless killing of innocent children produced a waveof revulsion against the violence that had been sweepingNorthern Ireland.Williams later emigrated to the United States, where sheteaches in a university and has become a stirring lecturer onpeace.NORTH AMERICAElise Boulding“Peace culture is about ways that people have learnedto get along by listening to one another and dealingpositively with their differences.”Elise Boulding is a noted American sociologist and pioneer inthe peace studies movement. Born in Norway in 1920, she isa long-time Quaker activist, lecturer and author. After raisingfive children, she earned a doctorate in sociology at theUniversity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where she participatedin one of the first “teach-ins.” She was the editor of aperiodical newsletter that provided news and networkingopportunities to international peace teams.College. She was the Secretary-General of the InternationalPeace Research Association, and International President ofthe Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom(WILPF). She is the author of Cultures of Peace: the HiddenSide of History andother books.Boulding continues to lecture and consult. She has beencalled “one of the peace movement’s wisest voices.”Peace Studies PioneerBoulding is emerita Professor of Sociology at DartmouthASIAAnwarul Chowdhury“Global efforts towards peace and reconciliation can onlysucceed with a collective approach built on trust, dialogueand collaboration…. No social responsibilityis greater nor task heavier than that of securingpeace on our planet.”women in peacebuilding. In 2001, Chowdhury led thenegotiations on behalf of the least developed countries atthe Third United Nations Conference on Least DevelopedCountries, which adopted the comprehensive BrusselsProgramme of Action for the present decade.Diplomat Seeks Peace, ServesLeast Developed CountriesAnwarul Karim Chowdhury was born in 1943 in Dhaka,Bangladesh. He is the United Nations Under Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least DevelopedCountries, Landlocked Developing Countries and SmallIsland Developing States.Chowdhury is a specialist in economic and socialdevelopment, conflict prevention and international securitymatters. When serving as chair of the UN Security Council,he pioneered discussion in the Council on the role ofChowdhury led the United Nations’ groundbreakinginitiative on the culture of peace, chairing the negotiationsthat produced the landmark document “Declaration andProgram of Action on a Culture of Peace,” adopted by theUN. General Assembly in 1999. He is a regular contributorto journals on peace, development and human rights issues,and a speaker at academic institutions and other forums.EUROPEMikhail Gorbachev“Peace is movement towards globality and universalityof civilization. Never before has the idea that peace isindivisible been so true as it is now. Peace is not unity insimilarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison andconciliation of differences. And, ideally, peace meansthe absence of violence.”Mikhail Gorbachev was born in 1931 in a village in southernRussia. He rose through the ranks of the Communist party tobecome the Executive President of the Soviet Union in 1989.and transformation (perestroika) intended to modernize theUSSR. His efforts led to his receiving the Nobel Prize forPeace in 1990.Gorbachev lost his office during the dissolution of the SovietUnion. He continues to work for international peace throughthe International Foundation for Socio-Economic andPolitical Studies and Green Cross International.Former Soviet Premier Helpedto End the Cold WarGorbachev initiated a period of political openness (glasnost)