The fragile nature of interdependence among nations, threatened by four lethal world conditions -- overpopulation, unequal distribution of resources, deterioration of the environment and the chaotic status of human rights -- is the context in which The Fund for Peace must operate.

Peace as the mere absence of war is not a sufficient objective. Our projects -- whether they inform the American public about a crisis, testify before Congress on U.S. policy, or publish reports about dangerous arms races -- confront issues that arise from the fact of interdependence and the conditions that threaten cooperation among nations. It isn't enough, however, to note these conditions and to say vaguely that we are doing something about them.

The Fund exerts two principal efforts to affect decisionmakers. First, it promotes scholarship to define problems and to provide competent answers. Second, it uses the knowledge and information it obtains to participate in debates and inform the public of the facts.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly how much these two efforts -- scholarship and public engagement -- go together. The Fund's primary task is to correct conditions that threaten human survival through a combination of scholarship and active civic education.

Randolph P. Compton
from What's at Stake is Global Survival, c. 1960.

A child's drawing? No, look more closely. The drawing with the yellow plane flying towards The Fund for Peace is the top of an enamel box that our former Chair, Jim Compton, designed as a present for his father, Fund for Peace Founder Randolph Compton.

The picture contains many of the things most important to Randolph Compton. The Fund for Peace contrail has four loops to represent areas of his major concerns: justice, environment, peace and population. The bee is a reminder of his interest in bee-keeping.

"The plane he is piloting," Jim Compton explained, "has an eagle on its door, which is the symbol of my younger brother John Parker Compton, who was killed in Italy during the Second World War."

John Parker Compton, youngest of the Compton's children, developed his passion for skiing and his nickname of "eagle" during 1939 at school in Switzerland. Since the age of ten, he had been the Compton family ski champ during family vacations in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada. (The Compton family photo shows [l-r]: Jim Compton, Ann C. Stephens, Dan Compton, Mrs. Compton, & Randolph Compton.)

After just two months at Princeton, he volunteered for the mountain troops and was assigned to the Army's Company G, 86th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division in 1943, and left for Italy in early 1945.

In the last decade, the 10th Mountain Division has distinguished itself for its dedication to peace serving in present day conflicts Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia.

At thirteen, John Parker (pictured below) wrote an essay on War and Peace, later published in his school's literary magazine. In part, he said

The older generation has not succeeded in putting any end to wars, and this is the thing that we must work on. When I think how modern the world is as far as mechanics go and how uncivilized the world is as far as settling a dispute goes, it seems too bad. If we can be so modern in the manner of living, surely we can be modern and avoid wars....

There are billions of dollars spent on war. These billions could be spent on useful projects instead of killing people. Killing people is where this money goes, to kill human beings!!

War must be stopped, and the younger generation will stop it!

The Fund for Peace was created in memory of John Parker Compton. Our work is dedicated to his memory.