Expertise

Ethics of the use of force; religion, conflict and peacebuilding; ethics and US foreign policy

At the Keough School

Gerard Powers is director of Catholic peacebuilding studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is also coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, which links twenty-one bishops’ conferences, Catholic development agencies, universities, and independent peace organizations in an effort to enhance the study and practice of conflict prevention, conflict management, and post-conflict reconciliation in war-torn areas.

Courses

• War, Peace, & the Catholic Imagination (master of global affairs elective)
• Introduction to Global Affairs and Integral Human Development (required course for undergraduate major in global affairs)

Research and Publications

Powers specializes in the ethics of the use of force; religion, conflict and peacebuilding; and ethics and US foreign policy. He is co-editor (with R. Schreiter and S. Appleby) of Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics and Praxis (Orbis, 2010); co-editor (with D. Philpott) of Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World (Oxford 2010); and co-editor (with D. Christiansen and R. Hennemeyer) of Peacemaking: Moral and Policy Challenges for a New World (1994).

Recent Work

• Challenges and Opportunities of Religious Peacebuilding: Insights from the Catholic Peacebuilding Network (Dossier on Religion and Peacebuilding in Contemporary Global Crises, Italian Institute for International Political Studies)

Biography

From 1998-2004, Powers was director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and from 1987-1998 was a foreign policy advisor in the same office.

News and Blog Posts

• Catholic peacebuilders bring hope amid the world’s crises (Notre Dame News)