Joseph Gerson
Summary C.V.
Joseph Gerson, Ph.D.
American Friends Service Committee
2161 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, Mass. 02140, USA
Phone: (w) 617-661-6130 (c) 617-216-0576
Fax: 617-354-2832
E-mail: JGerson@afsc.org
Education:
B.S.F.S. Georgetown University, 1968
Ph.D., Politics and International Security Studies, Union Institute, 1995.
Employment:
Director of Programs, American Friends Service Committee – New England 1978 – 2012
Director of Peace & Economic Security Program – AFSC 1976 – 2010
* Tufts University Experimental College 1996 (course on Moral Imagination and Human
Freedom)
* Regis College (courses on Japanese, Middle East and Post-Soviet Russian Political Dynamics
1991- 96)
* Holy Cross College (Peace Studies Capstone Seminar 1994)
Books:
Partial List
Of Publications
* Empire and the Bomb: How the US Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World – Pluto
Press, 2007
* With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion and Moral Imagination - New
Society Publishers 1995
* The Sun Never Sets...Confronting the Network of U.S. Foreign Military Bases, South
End Press, 1991
* The Deadly Connection: Nuclear War and U.S. Intervention, New Society Publishers,
1984
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NATO in Crisis and Agendas for Chicago, International Network of Engineers and Scientists
Don’t Believe the NATO Hype, Huffington Post and others
The Grim Implications of Obama’s New Defense Plan, Counterpunch and others
Libya Conflict Highlights NATO’s Imperialism Mission, TruthOut and others
Tucson Terrorism: A Deeply Rooted Assault on American Democracy, TruthOut, Statesman
Journal and others
Compensating for Decline: Revitalizing US Asia-Pacific Hegemony, TruthOut, Jan.2011
Guest Editor, special edition on military bases Peace Review, May, 2010
“Japan: Offensive Military Bases and a Troubled Alliance”, Peace Review, May, 2010
“Obama’s Nuclear Credibility Gap”, Common Dreams, March, 2010
“Obama’s Afghan ‘Strategy’ another American Tragedy”, Capital Times, Madison, WI.
January, 2010
“Obama, Nuclear Weapons and Abolition”, Common Dreams, 2009.
“The Politics of Escalation”, with Tom Hayden. The Nation, 2009
Obama, NATO, and Restoration of U.S. “Leadership”, Neues Deutschland, 2009
“U.S. Foreign Military Bases & Military Colonialism: Personal and Analytical Perspectives”
in Katherine Lutz, Empire of Bases, Pluto Press, 2009.
“Afghanistan, Socks, and a Moral Compass”, Common Dreams, December,2008
“Obama’s Election Triumph: Paradoxes of Hope” Japan Peace Journal,2008
“Obama in Global Perspective” Organization of American Historians, November, 2008
“Imperial Geopolitics, China and Article 9: Forces Driving the Possible Revision of the
Japanese Constitution”, Sekai Magazine, December, 2007
"Enduring" U.S. Bases in Iraq: Monopolizing the Middle East Prize, Fellowship, Winter 2007
“Siddhartha: Contradictions and Enlightenment”, Peacework, Summer 2007
“Preventing Nuclear War in Korea”, ZNET, October, 2006
“Why I was Arrested (On Cambridge Common) For Protesting The War”, Common Dreams
“With the Hibakusha: From the Inferno, Toward Survival” Just Commentary, January 2004
“American Icarus”, ZNET, Oct. 2003
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“U.S.-Japan Alliance for 21st Century Hegemony”, Peace Review, June 1997
“Asia/Pacific Peace and Security Issues", Interhemispheric Resource Center, Jan. 1997
"Asian/Pacific Realpolitiks", Z Magazine July/Aug. 1996
"I Refuse" - Voices of Okinawan Women”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/Aug
1996
"Achieving the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons", Peacework, June 1996
"Hibakusha Memories", Boston Globe, August 1995
“The Smithsonian’s Final Act”, Peace Review, 7:2, 1995
"Desert Storms, Deadly Connections", Peace Review. 6:3, 1994
“Legacies of the Storm: Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and the Diplomacy of the IsraeliPalestinian-Arab Conflict", Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives, June September 1993
“The U.S. Should End Its Military Alliance with Japan”. In American Foreign Policy:
Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press,1993
“The War and the New World Order”, Peace Review, Summer 1991
Public Speaking:
* Keynote speeches: International Counter Forum to the Nuclear Security Summit, Seoul, March
2012; International Conference, Bikini Day Commemorations, Shizuoka, February, 2012:
International Peace Day Conference, Dalian, September 2011; Guam Social Work Conference:
Human Rights and Social Justice, Micronesia, March, 201;, United for Justice and Peace,
January, 2011, Boston; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Annual General Meeting, London,
October, 2010; Counter-NATO Summit Conference, Lisbon, November, 2010; Japan Peace
Conference, Sasebo, December, 2010
*Talks on Peace and Justice Issues at more than 50 U.S. colleges and universities and in countless
community forums
* Keynote Speeches World Conference against A- & H Bombs, Hiroshima & Nagasaki
1989, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 2001-2003, 2005-20012
* Peace Forums in association with the Chinese Peoples’ Association for Peace and Disarmament,
Beijing, Washington, D.C., Changzhou, 2008-2010
* Conference on Ideas, History, and Political Action, Harvard University, 2009
* Japan Scientists Association 2009, 2007
* Keynote Speech, International Conference on Afghanistan, Berlin, 2009
* Peace Forum, Beijing, 2008
* International Afghanistan Congress, Hanover, German 2008
* Global Article 9 Conference, Tokyo 2008
* National Peace Studies Association, June 1997 “US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty Alliance:
Military Keystone for New World (Dis)Order
* International Symposium: Fifty Years since the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Hiroshima, 1995
* Crossroads 1991: Conference for a Bases Free, Nuclear Free Philippines, Manila 1990.
* European Nuclear Disarmament Conference, Lund, Sweden, 1988.
* North Atlantic Network Conference, Bergen, Norway, 1984.
Major
Organizing
Initiatives
* Co-Convener 2011- 112Network for a NATO-Free Future: Counter Summit for Peace and
Economic Justice
* Initiated Budget For All Massachusetts Referendum Campaign
* Co-Convener 2010 NPT Review International Planning Committee: International peace
conference, mass rally and march Times Square to United Nations, presentation of 17 million
petition signatures to NPT Review Conference
* New Strategies for the Obama Era, New England Conference, Tufts University, April 2009
*U.S. Peace Movement Delegation to China – April 2008 & Reciprocal Visit of Delegation
From Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament, March, 2009
* Security Without Empire, National Organizing Conference on Military Bases, American
University, February, 2009
* Co-Founder United for Peace and Justice – 2002
* Founder, United for Justice and Peace – Sept. 11, 2001
* Global Hibakusha Delegations to Hague Appeal for Peace Conference 1999, United Nations
NGO Millennium Conference
* Historians Committee, Smithsonian Institution 50th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki –
1995
* The Nuclear Weapons Freeze Movement - 1979-83
* Organized numerous peace and justice conferences at Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University,
and Simmons College 1976-2010
* Organized numerous speaking tours of Palestinian, Israeli, Japanese, Korean, Filipina/o
European Peace advocates
* Committee to Protect Boston Harbor – Prevented Homeporting of the nuclear armed Battleship
Missouri in Boston (Rhode Island and New York) - 1983
* Boston Campaign to Prevent, and Oppose, the Gulf War 1990-91
Consultations/
Boards
* International Coordinating Committee (No to NATO/No To War)
* Korea Democracy Foundation
* Massachusetts Civil Liberties Committee
Honors:
* Champion of Peace Award, Salem State University Peace Institute, 2010
* George Kennan Peace Award, New Jersey Peace Action, 1995
* Edward Douglas White Award, Outstanding Student Service, Georgetown University, 1968