David Cortright

David Cortright
David Cortright - Professor Emeritus at the Keough School of Global Affairs
Academic work
Institutions	University of Notre Dame
Notable works	Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas

David Cortright is an American scholar and peace activist. He is a Vietnam veteran who is currently Professor Emeritus and special adviser for policy studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books. Cortright has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war.

Biography

Cortright is a 1968 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. In 1970 he received his M.A. from New York University, and completed his doctoral studies in 1975 at the Union Institute in residence at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

As a soldier during the Vietnam War, Cortright joined with fellow soldiers to speak out against the war as part of the GI peace movement. He was 1 of 1,365 servicemen who signed an antiwar ad in the New York Times published on November 9, 1969 (see image below).

In 1977, Cortright was named the executive director of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy (SANE), which under his direction became the largest disarmament organization in the U.S. Cortright initiated the 1987 merger of SANE and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and served for a time as co-director of the merged organization. In 2002 Cortright helped to found the Win Without War coalition in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In 2014 he joined with Tom Hayden and others from the anti-Vietnam War movement to demand that the Department of Defense change a "rose-colored portrayal" of the Vietnam War on the government agency's website. Following the 2016 Colombian peace agreement referendum, he served as Director of the Kroc Institute's Peace Accords Matrix to support implementation of the 300-page agreement.

Work

Cortright is a Professor Emeritus of the Practice at the KROC Institute for International Peace Studies and the University of Notre Dame. His areas of expertise include nonviolent social change, nuclear disarmament, use of multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of international peacemaking. He is the author or co-editor of 22 books. He has written widely on nonviolent social change, nuclear disarmament, and the use of multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of international diplomacy. He has provided research services to several foreign ministries, including those of Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands, and has advised agencies of the United Nations, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the International Peace Academy, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Cortright is known for his scholarship and sustained advocacy in several interconnected areas of peace and conflict studies. Central to his work is the promotion of nonviolent social change and civil resistance as tools for achieving political and social justice. Drawing from his own experiences as a Vietnam-era soldier who organized protests within the military, Cortright has emphasized the critical role that grassroots activism plays in shaping broader political movements and influencing public policy.

He has played a role in the nuclear disarmament movement in the United States. During his tenure as executive director of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), he was instrumental in expanding the organization into one of the largest nuclear disarmament groups in the country.

In the 1980s, he was actively involved in the Nuclear Freeze campaign, a nationwide grassroots effort that called for a mutual halt to the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. The campaign contributed to a broader shift in public opinion regarding nuclear arms control during the latter stages of the Cold War. In addition to his work on disarmament, Cortright has conducted research on the role of multilateral sanctions and incentives in international diplomacy. His scholarship, often undertaken in collaboration with other experts, has informed policy discussions on how such tools can be used not only punitively but also constructively to promote compliance with international agreements and to support conflict resolution efforts.

Cortright has also contributed to the historical analysis of U.S. peace movements, examining the dynamics and impact of antiwar mobilizations related to the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and nuclear weapons policy. His work underscores the influence of coalitions comprising activists, veterans, students, and religious groups in shaping public discourse and influencing government policy on military and security issues.

His work advocates for participatory approaches to governance and conflict resolution, highlighting the role of community engagement in fostering sustainable peace. Combining academic scholarship with public advocacy, Cortright has contributed to both the theoretical and practical dimensions of peace and conflict studies.

Vietnam War Activism and Early Peace Advocacy

Cortright's involvement in peace activism began during his service in the U.S. Army at the time of the Vietnam War. Drafted in 1968, he was raised in a conservative Catholic working-class family and initially had limited political engagement. To avoid assignment to combat roles, he volunteered for service in the Army Band, where he was stationed at Fort Hamilton, New York, and later at Fort Bliss, Texas.

While in the military, Cortright encountered perspectives critical of the war, including from returning veterans. His own reading, including historical accounts of Vietnam and a biography of Ho Chi Minh, influenced his understanding of the conflict. He came to interpret the Vietnamese resistance as a national struggle for independence rather than solely an extension of global communism. This reevaluation led him to question the morality and legality of the war effort.

Cortright sought to express his opposition while remaining within the military structure. He became involved in the GI antiwar movement, a network of service members organizing against the war. At Fort Bliss, he participated in activities such as distributing underground publications and facilitating discussions among fellow soldiers. His actions were part of a broader pattern of dissent within the military during the later years of the Vietnam War.

Books

He is the author or co-editor of 22 books:

• A Peaceful Superpower: Lessons from the World's Largest Antiwar Movement (New York: New Village Press, 2023); shorter booklet A Peaceful Superpower: The Movement against War in Iraq (Goshen, Ind.: Fourth Freedom Forum, 2004).
• Truth Seekers: Voices of Peace and Nonviolence (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2020); published in an early edition as Buscadors de la Veritat: Veus per la pau i la noviolència (Barcelona: International Catalan Institute for Peace, 2017)
• Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War, co-edited with Barbara Doherty and Ron Carver (New York: New Village Press, 2019)
• Governance for Peace: How Inclusive, Participatory and Accountable Institutions Promote Peace and Prosperity, co-authored with Conor Seyle and Kristin Wall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
• Civil Society, Peace and Power, co-edited with Melanie Greenberg and Laurel Stone (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2016).
• Drones and the Future of Armed Conflict, co-edited with Rachel Fairhurst and Kristen Wall (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2015).
• Ending Obama's War: Responsible Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2011).
• Towards Nuclear Zero with Raimo Väyrynen (London: IISS, Routledge, 2010).
• Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for A New Political Age, 2nd ed. (Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm Publishers, 2009); first edition Gandhi and Beyond (Paradigm, 2006).
• Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
• Uniting Against Terror: Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Terrorist Threat, co-edited with George A. Lopez (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2007).
• Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005); original edition Soldiers in Revolt: The American Military Today (New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1975).
• Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action, with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002).
• Smart Sanctions: Targeting Economic Statecraft, co-edited with George A. Lopez (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
• The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s, with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).
• Pakistan and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, co-edited with Samina Ahmed (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998 and Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999).
• The Price of Peace: Incentives and International Conflict Prevention, editor (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), commissioned by The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.
• Political Gain and Civilian Pain: Humanitarian Impacts of Economic Sanctions, co-edited with Thomas G. Weiss, George A. Lopez, and Larry Minear (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).
• India and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, co-edited with Amitabh Mattoo (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).
• Economic Sanctions: Panacea or Peacebuilding in a Post–Cold War World? co-edited with George A. Lopez (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995).
• Peace Works: The Citizen's Role in Ending the Cold War (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993).
• Left Face: Soldier Unions and Resistance Movements in Modern Armies, with Max Watts (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1991).

See also

• List of peace activists

External links

• David Cortright official website at the University of Notre Dame
• Peace Accords Matrix