Lester R. Kurtz has served as Chair of the Peace Studies Association and of the Peace and War Section of the American Sociological Association. He is a Danforth Fellow and recipient of the Fulbright Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation Grant (Republic of China), American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship, and the Indo-U.S. Subcommission Fellowship. He is a professor of sociology and Asian studies at the University of Texas at Austin and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Tunghai University, and the University of Delhi. He holds a Ph.D in sociology from the University of Chicago and an M.A.R. in religion from Yale University. He has written widely on peace and conflict, world religions, Ghandi, nonviolence, and the arms race, and has lectured in Europe, Asia, and North America.