The A.J. Muste Memorial Lecture series at Hope College will feature the address “Charting a New Way to a New Peace in Troubled Times” by George A. Lopez of the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies on Monday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Lopez is the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, where he was a founding faculty member. He is a leading expert on economic sanctions, peacebuilding and various peace-related issues.
During 33 years of affiliation with the Kroc Institute, Lopez has engaged in a diverse set of policy and public roles. He served as interim executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1997 and chaired its Board of Directors (1998-2003) presiding over changing the hands of the Doomsday Clock in 2002. As a senior research associate at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York City in 2001-02, he assisted with the Council’s post-9/11 public programming throughout the United States.
He held a Senior Jennings Randolph Fellowship at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) from 2009 to 2010, and was a member of the United Nations Panel of Experts for monitoring and implementing UN sanctions on North Korea from 2010 to 2011. From 2013 to 2015, he was the vice president of the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding at USIP in Washington, D.C. This autumn he has been named one of the inaugural non-residential Fellows of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
Since 1992, Lopez has advised the United Nations, various international agencies, and governments on economic sanctions issues, ranging from assessing their humanitarian impact to the design of targeted financial sanctions. He has written more than 40 articles and book chapters and authored or edited six books (often with Kroc Institute faculty member David Cortright) on sanctions. Lopez and Cortright’s research detailing the unlikely presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was published before the 2003 Iraq War as “Disarming Iraq” in Arms Control Today and after the war as “Containing Iraq: the Sanctions Worked” in Foreign Affairs. In addition to media commentary regarding sanctions issues, Lopez recently has been part of a project on improving targeted financial sanctions convened by the Center for a New American Security.
Lopez has a deep commitment to nurturing the development of high quality peace studies and peacebuilding education at the collegiate level. He is founding director of the Kroc Institute’s annual Summer Institute on Teaching Peace in the 21st Century. This program has assisted the development of peace research and studies programs in more than 100 higher education institutions across five continents. While at USIP, Lopez led the creation of the Global Campus online peacebuilding education platform. Most recently, he has accompanied the development of university level peacebuilding programs in Poland, Colombia, and Ecuador, the latter as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.
The A.J. Muste Memorial Lecture series began in 1985 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Johannes (A.J.) Muste, a 1905 Hope graduate. Muste went on to become one of the most well-known and influential peace activists in the United States, working for many years as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The lecture series seeks to explore issues that would have been of interest to Muste, who died in 1967, including topics related to labor, civil rights and peace.
Audience members who need assistance to fully enjoy any event at Hope are encouraged to contact the college's Events and Conferences Office by emailing events@hope.edu or calling 616-395-7222 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.