Ken Rutherford (political scientist)

Last updated
Kenneth R. Rutherford
Ken Rutherford in Burundi May 2010.jpg
Kenneth Rutherford on a visit to Burundi, May 2010
Born
Oakland, CA
Alma mater University of Colorado at Boulder, B.A., M.B.A.
Georgetown University, Ph.D. (Political Science)
OccupationProfessor
Employer James Madison University
Known forAdvocacy for landmine survivors, work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, work the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, work on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, work to limit small arms and light weapons, work on peer support for trauma survivors
AwardsAs co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, he was a renowned leader in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition that spearheaded the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, Nobel Peace Prize (1997)
2013-2014 Human Security Award (Center for Unconventional Security Affairs)
Leadership in International Rehabilitation Award (Center for International Rehabilitation, 1999)
Survivors' Assistance Award (Marshall Legacy Institute, 2005)
Everyday Hero Award (United Airlines, 2002)
Adopt-A-Minefield Humanitarian Award (2002)

Kenneth R. Rutherford is the co-founder of the Survivor Corps, a group that helps the victims of war, and an American researcher in the field of political science. He is also a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Rutherford has served as the Director of the James Madison University Center for International Stabilization and Recovery, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania (1987-1989), a UNHCR Emergency Refugee Coordinator in Senegal (1989), and a humanitarian emergency relief officer in northern Kenya and Somalia (1993). In 2024, Rutherford taught at Hue University in Vietnam as a Fulbright Scholar Fellow.

Contents

International work

While studying political science at the University of Colorado in the mid-1980s, Rutherford decided to work in international development. Since graduating in 1985, he has worked for international aid agencies in Bosnia, Kenya, Mauritania, Senegal and Somalia, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan and Vietnam.

Rutherford began his international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania (1987–1989). During this period he was contracted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist in refugee camps on the border between Mauritania and Senegal.

He returned to the US to earn his MBA at the University of Colorado, then in 1993 went to work for the International Rescue Committee in Kenya and Somalia, where he was injured by a landmine.[ citation needed ]

Together with Jerry White he co-founded Landmine Survivors Network in 1995 [1] which later became Survivor Corps. He and White accompanied Princess Diana on her last humanitarian mission to visit landmine survivors in Bosnia-Herzegovina in August 1997, only three weeks before her death. [2] Rutherford was a prominent leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2000, he earned his doctorate in political science from Georgetown University.

He was associate professor of political science at Missouri State University from 2002 until 2010. In 2005, Rutherford went to Jordan on a Fulbright Fellowship where he taught international politics at the University of Jordan in Amman.

In 2008, Rutherford played a role in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. He was a board member of Survivor Corps until it closed in September 2010. [3]

In February 2010, Rutherford became Director of the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR), which includes the Mine Action Information Center, at James Madison University. In his capacity as CISR Director, he oversaw and participated in post-conflict missions and projects in numerous countries worldwide, including Burundi, Iraq, Tajikistan and Vietnam.

Landmine accident

On December 16, 1993, while working for the International Rescue Committee in Somalia, Rutherford's vehicle struck a landmine, injuring him severely. After a medical evacuation during which he nearly bled to death, one leg was amputated to save his life and the second one amputated several years later. He has since spoken to the United States Congress against landmines. [4] "It was an experience that fundamentally altered my life for the good," Rutherford said. "It crystallized my vision of what I believe I was put on this Earth to do." [5]

Following this incident, Rutherford focused his advocacy efforts to draft and enact prohibitions on anti-personnel landmines (1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty) and cluster munitions (2008 Cluster Munitions Convention), and promoted the rights and dignity of people with disabilities, resulting in the 2006 Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Together with Jerry White he co-founded Survivor Corps in 1995 which pioneered improvements in war victim assistance, providing amputees with peer mentors, artificial limbs, and job training. White and Rutherford's leadership in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines helped secure the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the Cluster Munitions Ban Treaty.

Publications

Articles

Ken Rutherford has been published extensively in numerous academic and policy journals, including the Journal of International Law and Policy, World Politics, [6] Journal of International Politics, [7] International Journal of World Peace, [8] Alternatives, [9] Non-Proliferation Review, [10] Harvard International Review , [11] The Journal of ERW and Mine Action, [12] [13] [14] [15] Journal of Transnational Associations, [16] Pain Medicine, [17] International Journal on Grey Literature, [18] and Security Dialogue . [19] He has contributed book reviews to Armed Forces and Society, [20] and National Security Studies Journal. [21]

Books

Rutherford is the author of Humanitarianism Under Fire: The US and UN Intervention in Somalia, (2008) and Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines (2011). He has co-edited two books: Reframing the Agenda: The Impact of NGO and Middle Power Cooperation in International Security Policy (2003) and Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy (2004).

Book chapters and contributions

Rutherford has contributed chapters to Negotiating Sovereignty and Human Rights, [22] Global Society in Transition: An International Politics Reader, [23] Civil Society in the Information Age, [24] The Landmine Action Smart Book, [25] Primary Care of Landmine Injuries in Africa: A Basic Text for Health Workers, [26] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, [27] and To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines. [28] Rethinking Sovereignty and Human Rights after the Cold War; Routledge Handbook of Environmental Security; Co-operating Without America: Theories and Case-Studies of Non-Hegemonic Regimes; Encyclopedia of Human Rights; Arms Control History, Theory, and Policy.

Rutherford also contributed to the chapter on Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1998 Report for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Office. [29] One the 20th anniversary of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, Rutherford co-authored (with Firoz Alizada, Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit "Victim assistance: There is a face and name behind each casualty," in The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention: Twenty Years of Saving Lives and Preventing Indiscriminate Harm published by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs.

Awards, honors and public appearances

The organization he was associated with, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Rutherford was co-recipient of the 1999 Leadership in International Rehabilitation Award presented by the Center for International Rehabilitation and has been inducted into the University of Colorado Heritage Center's "Hall of Excellence," a permanent exhibit at the University of Colorado. He has received the Marshall Legacy Institute's 2005 Survivors' Assistance Award, the 2002 United Airlines Everyday Hero Award, and the 2002 Adopt-A-Minefield Humanitarian Award. [30] Rutherford is also the 2013–2014 recipient of the Human Security Award from the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA)] at the University of California-Irvine.[ citation needed ]

As an advocate for people with disabilities affected by landmines, he has presented in more than 30 countries, testifying before U.S. Congress and the U.N. (New York City and Geneva). He has also appeared on Dateline, Nightline, The View and National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered . His personal story of recovering from his accident to pursue his dreams of marrying his fiancée, having children and becoming a professor has been profiled by The Oprah Winfrey Show , Reader's Digest [31] and the BBC. [32]

In June 2013, he was included among the "one hundred most influential people in armed violence reduction" by the London-based organization Action on Armed Violence] [33] [34] [ better source needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jody Williams</span> American political activist (born 1950)

Jody Williams is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights, and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today's world. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Campaign to Ban Landmines</span> International organization

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose stated objective is a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa Treaty</span> Anti-personnel landmine ban treaty

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often simply the Mine Ban Treaty, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (APLs) around the world.

A non-state actor (NSA) is an individual or organization that has significant political influence but is not allied to any particular country or state.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New York City, with offices in Boston, Washington, D.C., as well as Nairobi. It was established in 1986 to use the unique skills and credibility of health professionals to advocate for persecuted health workers, prevent torture, document mass atrocities, and hold those who violate human rights accountable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Survivor Corps</span>

Survivor Corps, formerly known as the Landmine Survivors Network, was a global network of survivors helping survivors to recover from war, rebuild their communities, and break cycles of violence. The organization operated programs in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Colombia, Croatia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Uganda, Rwanda, the United States and Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry White (activist)</span>

Jerry White is Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative. He co-founded the Survivor Corps, formerly the Landmine Survivors Network, created by and for survivors to help victims of war, and is a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. He was a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia from 2015 to 2022. He is a Senior Ashoka Fellow and a Gabelli Fellow at the Gabelli School of Business in New York City.

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society movement, which campaigns against the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions. Cluster munitions, a type of munition stockpiled by more than 80 states, are documented to have caused significant civilian deaths and injuries and have frequently caused indiscriminate effects in both conflict and peace times. Their use is prohibited under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, a convention formally endorsed on May 30, 2008, in Dublin, Ireland, and was signed by 94 countries in Oslo on December 3-4, 2008. The Convention entered into force, becoming binding upon state parties to the convention on August 1, 2010, after 30 countries formally ratified it. As of January 4, 2012, it had been signed by 111 countries, of which 77 have ratified.

A mine clearance organization, or demining organization, is an organization involved in the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) for military, humanitarian, or commercial reasons. Demining includes mine clearance, as well as surveying, mapping and marking of hazardous areas.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining is an international organisation working in mine action and explosive ordnance risk reduction, with a focus on landmines, cluster munitions and ammunition stockpiles. Based in the Maison de la paix in Geneva, it is legally a non-profit foundation in Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aki Ra</span> Cambodian former child soldier, deminer, and museum curator (born c. 1970)

Aki Ra is a former Khmer Rouge conscripted child soldier who works as a deminer and museum curator in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He has devoted his life to removing landmines in Cambodia and to caring for young landmine victims. Aki Ra states that since 1992 he has personally removed and destroyed as many as 50,000 landmines, and is the founder of the Cambodian Landmine Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanity & Inclusion</span> Non-governmental organization

Humanity & Inclusion is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in 1982 to provide help in refugee camps in Cambodia and Thailand. Headquartered in France and Belgium, since its creation, it has opened branches in six other countries : Switzerland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the United States.

Mine action is a combination of humanitarian aid and development studies that aims to remove landmines and reduce the social, economic and environmental impact of them and the explosive remnants of war (ERW).

The Uganda Landmine Survivors Association (ULSA) is a non-governmental organization, focused primarily on advocacy and victim assistance throughout Uganda. The organization was founded in April 2005 in order to campaign against the use, production and transfer of landmines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war (ERWs). ULSA also serves as a peer to peer support network for survivors, providing them with training in vocational, leadership and advocacy skills in partnership with other organizations throughout Northern and Western Uganda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ban Advocates</span>

The Cluster Munitions Ban Advocates are a group of individuals whose lives have been affected by cluster munitions, a particular type of explosive weapon that has been banned for its indiscriminate area effects and risk from unexploded ordnance. They come from Afghanistan, Albania, Cambodia, Croatia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Serbia and Vietnam. The Ban Advocates took an active role in the Oslo Process on cluster munitions that led to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a treaty banning cluster munitions and providing innovative provisions to assist the victims of these weapons. The Ban Advocates initiative was launched in October 2007 by Handicap International Belgium, a founding member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The Ban Advocates spoke in front of the international community on many occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Mine Action Service</span> United Nations organization

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is a service located within the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations that specializes in coordinating and implementing activities to limit the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for International Stabilization and Recovery</span>

The Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR), formerly the Mine Action Information Center (MAIC), is a public policy center at James Madison University that manages information, conducts training, holds conferences and workshops, and performs research relevant to humanitarian mine clearance, victim assistance, mine risk reduction and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Raphael F. J. McGrath, usually known as Rae McGrath, lives in Langrigg, Cumbria and is a British campaigner and specialist in humanitarian response to conflict and natural disaster. He founded the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and, as a leading member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), represented the organisation when it received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1997.

Gender mainstreaming in mine action is the application of gender mainstreaming to mine action. It is increasingly being adopted by international and state mine action organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITF Enhancing Human Security</span> Non profit humanitarian organization

ITF Enhancing Human Security is a humanitarian, non-profit organization founded by the Republic of Slovenia., which specializes in land mine clearance and post-conflict reconstruction. It was established on 12 March 1998 with the purpose of helping Bosnia and Herzegovina in its post-conflict rehabilitation, specifically with mine clearance and assistance to mine victims.

References

  1. ↑ Jerry White, "Landmine Survivors Speak Out," UNIDIR Disarmament Forum; 1999:4.
  2. ↑ Jerry White, I Will Not Be Broken, St. Martin's Press, New York, April 2008; ISBN   0-312-36895-X, pp. 15-16.
  3. ↑ Chris Abraham, "Survivor Corps Née Landmine Survivors Network Closing." Posted on 08/09/2010.
  4. ↑ "The Global Landmine Crisis," Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, May 13, 1994. STATEMENT OF KENNETH RUTHERFORD, RELIEF WORKER, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE.
  5. ↑ "Panel: U.S. Still Reviewing Ban on Landmines". Archived from the original on 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
  6. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "The Evolving Arms Control Agenda: Implications of the Role of NGOs in Banning Antipersonnel Landmines," World Politics, Volume 53, Number 1, October 2000, pp. 74-114.
  7. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "A Theoretical Examination of Disarming States: NGOs and Anti-Personnel Landmines," Journal of International Politics, Vol. 37, Number 4, (December 2000) pp.457-477.
  8. ↑ Ken Rutherford and Richard Matthew, "Banning Landmines in the American Century," International Journal of World Peace, Volume XVI Number Two (June 1999) pp. 23-36.
  9. ↑ Ken Rutherford and Richard Matthew, "The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Mine Ban Movement," Alternatives: Global and Local Politics. Volume 28, Number 1 (January–February 2003) pp. 29-56.
  10. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "The Hague and Ottawa Conventions: A Model for Future Weapon Ban Regimes?" The Nonproliferation Review 6(3),Spring/Summer 1999, pp. 36-50.
  11. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Symbiotic Partnership International Organizations and Grassroots Assistance to Victims of Armed Conflict," Harvard International Review, June 9, 2008
  12. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Director's Message," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 14.3, Fall 2010
  13. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Peer-to-Peer Support Vital to Survivors," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 14.2, Summer 2010
  14. ↑ Ken Rutherford, Tracey Begley and Nerina Cevra, "Connecting the Dots: The Ottawa Convention and the CCM," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 12.2, Winter 2008-2009.
  15. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Landmine Victim Assistance and Government Legal Obligation," Journal of Mine Action, Issue 6.1, Winter 2002, pp. 52-55.
  16. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "The landmine ban and NGOs: the role of communications technologies," Journal of Transnational Associations, 2000;2(2000):60–73.
  17. ↑ Lasch K, Lynch NT, Rutherford K, Sherman C, Webster D. "Psychological and Cultural Influences on Pain and Recovery from Landmine Injury." Pain Medicine, 2006;7:S213-S217.
  18. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Internet activism: NGOs and the Mine Ban Treaty," International Journal on Grey Literature, Vol. 1 Iss: 3, pp.99 - 106, 2000.
  19. ↑ Stefan Brem and Ken Rutherford, "Walking Together or Divided Agenda?: Comparing Landmines and Small-Arms Campaigns," Security Dialogue, June 2001; vol. 32, 2: pp. 169-186.
  20. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Military-Civilian Interactions: Intervening in Humanitarian Crises by Thomas G. Weiss," Armed Forces and Society, Spring 2002 (volume 28, number 3), pp. 521-522.
  21. ↑ Ken Rutherford, "Losing Mogadishu: Testing U.S. Policy in Somalia by Jonathan Stevenson," National Security Studies Journal, Volume II, Issue 3 (Summer 1996) pp. 133-134.
  22. ↑ Chapter 11, "The Transnational Effort for Disability Rights: The Marriage of Disability Rights to Human Rights," in Negotiating sovereignty and human rights: actors and issues in contemporary human rights politics, Noha Shawki, Michaelene Cox eds., Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009, ISBN   0-7546-7719-2
  23. ↑ "A Theoretical Examination of Disarming States: NGOs and Anti-Personnel Landmines," in Global Society in Transition: An International Politics Reader, Dan Nelson and Laura Neack, eds., New York and The Hague: Kluwer, 2002, pp. 271-294.
  24. ↑ "Essential Partners: Landmines-Related NGOs and Information Technologies," in Civil Society in the Information Age, Peter Hajnal, ed., Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Press, 2002, pp. 95-107.
  25. ↑ "Survivor Assistance," in The Landmine Action Smart Book, Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University, 2002, pp. 20-31.
  26. ↑ Total p. 72, Primary Care of Landmine Injuries in Africa: A Basic Text for Health Workers, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (2000).
  27. ↑ "State Legal Responsibilities Toward Landmine Survivors," Landmine Monitor Report 2000, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (August 2000) pp. 1078-1080.
  28. ↑ Ken Rutherford and Jerry White, "The Role of the Landmine Survivors Network," To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines, Maxwell A. Cameron, Robert J. Lawson and Brian W. Tomlin, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 pp. 99-117;
  29. ↑ Ken Rutherford and Sue Eitel, "Landmine Awareness in Bosnia: General Overview," in Report for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Office, U.S. Dept. of Defense, April 1998.
  30. ↑ "Hope and Dignity: Landmine Survivors Network"
  31. ↑ Perry Collin, "Love Story," Reader's Digest, 1995 Vol 147, no. 881, pp. 136-141.
  32. ↑ "Dr. Kenneth R. Rutherford, Associate Professor of Political Science". Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  33. ↑ Henry Dodd, "Top 100: The most influential people in armed violence reduction," June 28, 2013.
  34. ↑ "Top 100: The most influential people in armed violence reduction."
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.