Like many of the pioneering “parents of the field,” Landrum Bolling had his first direct acquaintanceship with violent conflict during the Second World War. As a Quaker and a pacifist he was originally a conscientious objector and ended up acting as a war correspondent in the Balkans. He spent the last months of that war surviving the winter [one of the coldest ever in Europe] with Marshall Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia. Following those adventures he had an astonishingly varied life in and out of academia, describing it in the following interview as a “checkered, schizophrenic career!”
Dr. Bolling trained as a political scientist at the University of Chicago, but – in addition to his interest in matters international – was always desirous of becoming involved in conflict in a practical, hands-on way. He taught at Brown University and at Deloitte College and became good friends with Kenneth and Elise Boulding, through the Quaker connection. He worked with the legendary Father Hesburgh the Catholic President of Notre Dame University and founder of the peace studies program there -- a connection which later led to Dr. Bolling’s appointment as Rector of the Ecumenical Center in Jerusalem. En route, he was the President of Earlham College for over 15 years, a member of the Harvard Advisory Committee on Middle East studies and then head of the Lilley Endowment and of the National Council of Foundations. He has had a long association with the Conflict Management Group and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard.
His work and lifelong interest in the Middle East resulted in his authorship of the Quaker study, The Search for Peace in the Middle East, and continued with further work for the American Friends Service Committee and through friendships with Roger Fisher and particularly with Professor Edy Kaufman of the Harry Truman Center at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has long been trusted as a third party by both Israelis and Palestinians and early on became involved in informal dialogues across the difficult divide between the two communities. During the 1970s he often acted as an emissary between Palestinian leaders – usually off limits to official contacts – and the U.S. government in Washington.
Landrum Bolling thus truly represent exemplifies the figure of the “practical theorist” extolled by Kurt Lewin. His reflections on the field of peace and conflict studies are well worth hearing not least because they arise from someone what has, in his time, been both a 'doer' and a thinker. Towards the end of his interview, Landrum Bolling, now working away for World Watch, mentions that he is working on two books, one looking back on lessons learned during his “checkered” career. We await their completion with great anticipation.
JB/CRM
