By Marc Eliot Stein, World BEYOND War, January 31, 2026
We’re kicking off a new year for the World BEYOND War podcast by talking to Alicia Cabezudo, peace educator in Rosario, Argentina and board member at World BEYOND War. Alicia Cabezudo was among the first generation of peace studies teachers, and spoke with me about learning from and working with Johan Galtung, the first director of the seminal Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. We also spoke about the original goals of academic peace and conflict studies departments, and the innovative work of Paolo Friere, Jean Paul Lederach, David Adams, Abraham Magendzo and Betty Reardon. Alicia Cabezudo is now herself a leading voice for peace education, interacting with universities, think tanks and institutions all over the world with a message of strenuous hope.
I was eager to ask Alicia about the purpose of pedagogy and the experiences she has with students today. In our free-flowing conversation, we also talked about the need for action and activism on behalf of peace, the current generation of Latin American leaders including Lula in Brazil, Gustavo Petro in Colombia and Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico. We also talked about wealth inequality and dysfunctional leadership (Javier Milei, Donald Trump) in our own countries, the way previous presidents such as Barack Obama led the way towards today’s unconscionable practices of high-tech extrajudicial murder by drone, and our perceptions of USA’s shocking recent attack on Venezuela.
Musical excerpt: “Streets of Minneapolis” by Bruce Springsteen.
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