About

Economists for Peace and Security (EPS) is a UN-registered NGO, is an international network of thirteen affiliated organizations promoting economic analysis and appropriate action for peace, security and the world economy. We seek a world whose people are secure, free from fear and want, where economies distribute goods and services efficiently and for the benefit of all. We work locally, regionally and internationally to reduce the military burden, and to effect policy changes that can build a more just and peaceful future.

EPS has chapters in thirteen countries around the world. Over the years, and with the strong support of a board of trustees with world’s most influential economists, EPS has achieved to enrich the discipline of Economics with the aspect of war, conflict and peace. EPS has always played a strong role though on the background. Since 1989 many positions have been established at universities around the world. It has been the incubator for international research, for institutes, and publications and journals. EPS has influenced policies and legal structures over the world. The board of EPS consists of volunteers.

History

EPS was founded in 1989 as Economists Against the Arms Race (ECAAR) in New York by Mr Robert Schwarz. Since then, many renowned economists, including nobel laureates, joined the Board of Trustees: Jan Tinbergen, Wassily Leontief, Franco Modigliani, James Tobin, Kenneth Arrow, and Lawrence R. Klein, Oscar Arias, Amartya Sen, Robert Solow, and Douglass North Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, William Sharpe, and Daniel McFadden.

In 1993, following the end of the US-Soviet arms race, ECAAR became Economists Allied for Arms Reduction. The organization continued its interest in nuclear issues, working especially to analyze the costs of nuclear waste disposal, to support the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and to expand its own network through the addition of affiliates around the world.

ECAAR received its NGO certification to two UN bodies, the Economic and Social Council and the Department of Public Information, in 1995. ECAAR became EPS in January 2005. The new name was chosen to reflect the full range of concerns of its members and program, and the increasingly complex interrelationships among disarmament, development, security, conflict, war and peace.

Milestones

• 1992 EPS (re)starts the Isaac Roet Prize with University of Amsterdam
• 1992  World Peace Science Conference at Tinbergen Institute 
• 1993 Essay contest “Arms Reduction and Global Reconstruction: A Blueprint for the year 2000“
• 1995 EPS is registered with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the United Nations
• 1995 Vieques Island project. ECAAR joined a series of protests against the  use of the island as a bombing range and testing ground
• 1996 start of collaboration with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). 
• 1996 South African “arms deal” by Terry Crawford-Browne. 
• 2004 Times Square Billboard Counts Iraq Costs. 
• 2004 Start of Netherlands Peace Science Foundation and establishment of several academic chairs (co-initiated by EPS) 
• 2006 EPS UK publishes a peer reviewed journal, the Economists for Peace and Security Journal (EPSJ) 
• 2012  EPS “Economists on Conflict” blog project with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
• 2016 start of the EPS “Economists on Peace” blog project with the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) 

Affiliates