Submitter:

Name:Owen Ambur

Email:Owen.Ambur@verizon.net

Organization:

Name:Albert Einstein Institution

Acronym:AEI

Description:
Founded in 1983 by Dr. Gene Sharp, The Albert Einstein Institution is dedicated to advancing the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. It is committed to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through the use of nonviolent action.

Stakeholder(s):

• Cornelia Sargent: Board Chair -- Cornelia Sargent is active in numerous activities throughout New England. She is Vice-President of the Cold Pond Community Land Trust in Acworth, NH, and a Conservation Dictrict Supervisor in Sullivan, NH. She has done legal internships at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Disability Rights Center, and New Hampshire Legal Assistance. She has also worked with Stephen Speicher, the past president of the American Blind Lawyers Association. She is currently mediating as an intern in a small claims court towards a 450-hour mediation certificate from Woodbury Colllege, Montpelier, VT. Ms. Sargent received her B.A. from Smith College and her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.


• Elizabeth Defeis: Member of the Board -- Elizabeth Defeis is the former dean of Seton Hall University School of Law and currently teaches international law, human rights, and international criminal law at Seton Hall. Professor Defeis has provided technical assistance to the governments of Armenia and Macedonia with respect to building democracy and has lectured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union and in Italy. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights and is a recipient of a Fulbright lectureship for scholarship in Armenia and Russia. She was also the first chair of the Urban Development Corporation of New Jersey and is an NGO delegate to the United Nations Coalition Against Traffic in Women. She received her BA and JD from St. John's University School of Law and her Master of Law from New York University School of Law.


• Mary King: Member of the Board -- Prize-winning author and political scientist Mary King is professor of peace and conflict studies at the University for Peace, whose main campus is in Costa Rica. She is also distinguished scholar at the American University Center for Global Peace, Washington, D.C. In 2004, she will additionally be visiting research fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, England. During the Carter Administration, Dr. King had world-wide responsibility for the Peace Corps, then in sixty countries. In the years since, she has acted as a special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter on the Middle East, often serving as his envoy to political and business leaders of the region. Dr. King is the author of several books and received a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award in 1988. In November 2003 in Mumbai, India, she will be awarded this year's Jamnalal Bajaj prize, a juried international award bestowed for the advancement of Gandhian values outside India. Previous winners include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Joseph Rotblat, and Professor Johan Galtung. She holds a Ph.D. in international politics from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth.


• Gene Sharp: Member of the Board -- Gene Sharp is Senior Scholar at the Albert Einstein Institution and founded the Institution in 1983. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Ohio State University and a D.Phil. in political theory from Oxford University. He is also Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. For nearly thirty years he held a research appointment at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs. He is the author of various books, including The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973), Gandhi as a Political Strategist (1979), Social Power and Political Freedom (1980), Making Europe Unconquerable (1985), Civilian-Based Defense (1990), and From Dictatorship to Democracy (1993, 2002, and 2003; downloadable as a free e-book here). His most recent book is Waging Nonviolent Struggle: Twentieth Century Practice and Twenty-First Century Potential. His writings have been published in more than thirty languages.


• Curt Goering: Member of the Board -- Curt Goering is senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA and has been involved with Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) for over twenty years. He is the Chief Operating Officer of AIUSA and his responsibilities include policy and strategy development, public representation, and fundraising. He has also carried out numerous research assignments in the field for Amnesty International in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia. He received his MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and hold a BA in both Peace Studies and German from Bethel College (Kansas).


• Jamila Raqib: Executive Director


• Pro-Democracy Groups: To further its mission, the Institution has supported research projects (for examples, see our publications section), actively consulted with resistance and pro-democracy groups (including groups in Burma, Thailand, Tibet, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Serbia, and the Occupied Territories) and worked to publicize the power and potential of nonviolent struggle around the world through educational materials, analyses, translations, workshops, and media visibility.


• Resistance Groups


• Burma


• Thailand


• Tibet


• Latvia


• Lithuania


• Estonia


• Belarus


• Serbia