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Randall Forsberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | Randall Watson (1943-07-23)July 23, 1943 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | October 19, 2007(2007-10-19) (aged 64) Brooklyn,New York City, U.S. |
| Other names | Randy[1][2] |
| Occupations | |
| Title |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Father | Douglass Watson |
Dr.Randall Caroline Forsberg ((1943-07-23)July 23, 1943 –(2007-10-19)October 19, 2007) led a lifetime of research and advocacy on ways to reduce the risk of war, minimize the burden ofmilitary spending, and promotedemocratic institutions. Her career started at theStockholm International Peace Research Institute in 1968. In 1974 she moved toCambridge, Massachusetts (where she earned her Ph.D. in 1980) to found theInstitute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) as well as to launch the nationalNuclear Freeze campaign.[3][4]
Randall Forsberg was accompanied by an important colleague by the name ofHelen Caldicott while she was leading the Nuclear Freeze movement in both Manhattan and Central Park. Both women were met with many challenges in their efforts to lead the Nuclear Freeze Movement. These challenges included gender discrimination and discrediting as influential leaders by the media.
Forsberg's strong leadership in the nuclear freeze movement is thought to be very influential in the writing of foreign policy during theReagan administration and is even credited with catalyzing the negotiation of theINF treaty betweenPresident Reagan andMikhail Gorbachev.[5]
Randall Forsberg, born inHuntsville, Alabama, often referred to as "Randy", was the daughter ofDouglass Watson.[1] She graduated fromColumbia University in 1965 and later moved toPennsylvania where she taught English and married her husband Gunnar Forsberg, and moved toStockholm in 1967.[6] The couple later divorced.[3] It is here that she became interested inarms control issues while working at theStockholm International Peace Research Institute as a typist in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1974, she returned to the United States, and became a graduate student in defense studies in the Department of Political Science at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]
After earning her Ph.D. in 1980, she founded theInstitute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS). The IDDS is a non-profit center that studies global military policies, arms holdings, production and trade.[7] As director of the IDDS, Forsberg was responsible for publishing theArms Control Reporter monthly andIDDS Almanac: World Arms Holdings, Production, and Trade once a year.[8] IDDS became an important resource for thepeace movement andanti-nuclear weapons movement.
In December 1979, Forsberg gave a speech inLouisville at the annual meeting of Mobilization for Survival, an anti-nuclear organization. It is this speech that gained Forsberg momentum for her anti-nuclear campaign and led her to publishCall to Halt the Arms Race in 1979.[9] This publication was the manifesto of theNuclear Freeze Campaign. The four-paged document advocated a bilateral halt to the testing, production, deployment and delivery ofnuclear weapons.[5] By 1982, Forsberg's nuclear freeze campaign had gained support from various state and county governments, over 100 national organizations, numerous large labor unions, and many other organizations.[2] Support for Forsberg'sgrassroots movement was very evident in 1982 when the freeze resolutions appeared on ballots in nine states. The polls showed that 10.8 million out of 18 million US citizens voted in favor of the freeze.[2] On June 12 of the same year, approximately one million people gathered inCentral Park to show their support for a Nuclear Freeze at anti-nuclear weapon rally.
In 1983, Forsberg was awarded a $204,000MacArthur Foundationgenius grant for showing unique artistic, intellectual or social creativity.[10] After receiving theMacArthur Foundation grant, Randall became president of a group known as Freeze Voter. This group organized and collected large amounts of money in an effort to endorse candidates in the 1984 election who were for nuclear disarmament.[2]
In 2005 she became Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professorship in Political Science and International Security Studies at theCity College of New York.[11]
To add to her long list of achievements, Forsberg also served as a board member for theArms Control Association.
Forsberg died ofendometrial cancer on October 19, 2007 at the age of 64.[5] She is survived by her daughter, Katarina Forsberg.[3]
Upon Forsberg's untimely death, Professor Judith Reppy, as chair of theInstitute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) board, assumed responsibility for the IDDS archive and facilitated it's transfer to theCornell University Library.[12]
Talks atWest Point, theUS Air Force Academy, theNational Defense University, and the German War College; and met with senior government officials ofRussia,China,Germany,Norway, and other countries. She was on the board or advisory board of theBoston Review,Arms Control Association,Journal of Peace Research,University of California Institute for Global Cooperation and Conflict, andWomen's Action for New Directions from ____ until her death in 2007.
As well as articles inScientific American,International Security,Technology Review,Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, andWorld Policy Journal.
