Elise Boulding, an influential peace activist, academic and former board member of the World Policy Institute passed away recently. Throughout the 1980s, Boulding served as a member of the World Orders Model Project (WOMP), a WPI-sponsored enterprise aimed at applying interdisciplinary research, education, and dialogue “to create conditions for world peace.” Promoting equality, justice and sustainability, Boulding sought to advance the idea of a global civilization, united by one common goal: just peace.
Boulding involved herself in several WOMP projects, including the 1985 Committee for Just Peace, which brought together policymakers who expressed an interest in pursuing local, regional and ultimately, global peace. The Committee was wildly successful in influencing members of the United Nation, and in 1990, WOMP earned the UNESCO prize for Peace Education. Other members of WOMP noted that without Boulding, such a prize would not have been awarded.
–Yaffa Fredrick