By World BEYOND War, June 15, 2024
What does NATO have to do with current and looming wars? How does NATO work and what is it working on? How does an alliance whose members and partners make up 69.4% of the world’s military spending shape international relations? What alternatives exist? What is being planned by advocates for peace and demilitarization?
There will be a 24-hour peacewave on June 22:
https://24hourpeacewave.org
A counter-summit and rally will unwelcome NATO to Washington, D.C., in July:
https://nonatoyespeace.org
Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. She is the co-author of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless War, and the author of Drone Warfare, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.—Saudi Connection and Inside Iran. In 2012, she was awarded the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation’s Peace Prize; she is also recipient of the 2014 Gandhi Peace Award and the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Benjamin is a World BEYOND War Advisory Board Member. Her latest book, co-authored with David Swanson is NATO What You Need to Know.
Oleg V. Bodrov is an engineer-physicist, environmentalist, former member of the Council of International Peace Bureau (IPB), chairman of the Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland, St. Petersburg, Russia. He was elected as IPB board member in October 2022. Bodrov is one of the leaders of the Russian peace, environmental protection, and nuclear safety movements. In coalition with partners from the Baltic Sea countries, he is working to reduce the level of confrontation between NATO and Russia in the Baltic. He is the author of reports at international anti-war conferences in Helsinki, Paris, New York, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. He is the creator of documentaries on the consequences of nuclear weapons production and nuclear energy.
Shirine Jurdi has almost 20 years of experience working in the field of peacebuilding and conflict prevention. She led the establishment of the MENA Coalition on Youth, Peace, and Security. She works to advance more locally informed decision making on the national, regional, and global levels. Since 2003, Jurdi has been a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Lebanon. She is the team leader for the Stop Killer Robots Campaign in her section, and acted as the MENA Regional Representative on the International Board from 2018 to 2022. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Arab States CSOs and Feminist Network. She is also a member of the International Board of the Control Arms Coalition. Jurdi has been a member of the Mediation Network Marjoun since 2022. Shirine is a member of the MENA-WGC Feminist Taskforce. She was awarded the International Young Women’s Peace and Human Rights Award from Democracy Today. She holds an ABD in Peace and Conflict Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Jeffrey Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development. Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases. Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University, and SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. From 2001-18, Sachs served as Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).
Yurii Sheliazhenko PhD, is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is based in Ukraine. Yurii is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, a board member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, and a council member of the International Peace Bureau. He obtained a Master of Mediation and Conflict Management degree in 2021 and a Master of Laws degree in 2016 at KROK University. In addition to his participation in the peace movement, he is a journalist, blogger, human rights defender, and legal scholar, an author of academic publications and a lecturer on legal theory and history. He has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses. Yurii is a winner of the International Peace Bureau’s 2022 Sean MacBride Peace Prize.
MODERATOR:
Tamara Lorincz is a Member of the Advisory Board of World BEYOND War. She is based in Canada. Tamara Lorincz is a PhD student in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs (Wilfrid Laurier University). Tamara graduated with an MA in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom in 2015. She was awarded the Rotary International World Peace Fellowship and was a senior researcher for the International Peace Bureau in Switzerland. Tamara is currently on the board of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the international advisory committee of Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space. She is a member of the Canadian Pugwash Group and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Tamara was a co-founding member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network in 2016. Tamara has an LLB/JSD and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. She is the former Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network and co-founder of the East Coast Environmental Law Association. Her research interests are the military’s impacts on the environment and climate change, the intersection of peace and security, gender and international relations, and military sexual violence.
