Call Number:

CDG-A.Center for War/Peace Studies

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

2.9 linear ft. (2.9 linear ft.)

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Identification of item], in the Center for War/Peace Studies Collected Records (CDG-A), Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Date:

1966-2005 (bulk)

Creator:

Center for War/Peace Studies (New York, N.Y.) and Center for Global Perspectives

Abstract:

The Center was organized in 1966 by the New York Friends Group to carry out community and adult education on world affairs and U.S foreign policy issues. The Center's name was changed to Center for Global Perspectives in 1976, but a subsequent reorganization restored the original name.

The following historical background was written by Doris Shamleffer for J. Richard Kyle, then curator of the SCPC, on January 25, 1982: "New York Friends Group, Inc. was established in New York State in 1956.... In 1966, New YorkFG set up a program, the Center for War/Peace Studies, to carry out community and adult education on world affairs and U.S. foreign policy issues. It took over the publication of War/Peace Report, which had begun independently in 1961. Under the CW/PS a schools program was developed and it eventually became the major work of CW/PS. War/Peace Report was discontinued in 1975. In 1968, the CW/PS took over the publication of Intercom, a publication which had been started by the Foreign Policy Association in 1976, the name of the schools program of CW/PS was changed to the Center for Global Perspectives, and it continued to function as a project of the NYFG. It continued to publish the periodical Intercom, which since 1969 had been directed exlusively to a schools audience. At the same time (January 1976), a new organization -- Global Perspectives in Education Inc. -- was incorporated.... It carried out some work in the schools side by side with the Center for Global Perspectives. On July 1, 1977, the Center for Global Perspectives was transferred to Global Perspectives in Education Inc....., [which entity] continued to publish Intercom. In 1977 also, Richard Hudson, former editor of War/Peace Report, reorganized the Center for War/Peace Studies. It was incorporated to carry out applied research toward a world of peace with justice, and it published the newsletter Global Report and its Special Studies Series."

Both the CW/PS and Global Perspectives in Education Inc. had offices at 218 East 18th Street, New York (New York), a building owned by the New York Friends Group Inc. There were several regional offices as well. Staff and Board members of the CW/PS included Robert W. Gilmore (President), Charles Bloomstein, William A. Delano, Elizabeth J. Burke, H. Thomas Collins, Larry E. Condon, Robert E. Freeman, Richard Hudson, David C. King, Stella M. Saltonstall, and Doris Shamleffer.

A 2007 website for CW/PS related the following: "The Center for War/Peace Studies, a non-profit, tax-exempt U.S. organization incorporated in 1977, is a "think tank" located in the United Nations backyard. The central objective of the CW/PS is to establish an international political and legal system that will make possible the abolition of war. Working on the premise that the present international decision-making system is obsolete, the CW/PS has developed the Binding Triad System for global decision-making. Under the Binding Triad concept, the U.N. General Assembly would be transformed from a powerless "Town Meeting of the World" into a genuine global legislature. Its decisions would require majorities on three "legs," based on the present one-nation-one-vote arrangement, population, and contributions to the regular U.N. budget, which are a rough measure of GNP." The current director of the organization is Lucy Law Webster. For more information, see http://www.cwps.org/index.html.

Most of the material in this collection was removed from the files of Robert Gilmore during a 2006 sorting of his papers (the material that documents his own involvement with the CW/PS remained in his collection). One box was donated to the SCPC by Richard Hudson. The staff of the CW/PS was as high as 24 at one time, so it is obvious that much material is missing here, including Board meeting minutes, financial records, correspondence, etc. -- that would fully document the efforts of this organization. It is possible that there is still material in the New York Friends Group records.