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Don Kraus
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 202-330-4103
Contact Don
Don Kraus is the President and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalSolutions.org and its political arm, the Global Solutions Action Network. GlobalSolutions.org is a groundbreaking online movement for the 80% of Americans who want the United States to take a responsible and cooperative role in the world.
Don previously served as Global Solutions' Executive Vice-President where he directed its Government Relations Department and Political Action Committee. Prior to that, he served as the Executive Director of the Campaign for United Nations Reform and its affiliated political action committee, CUNR PAC. An expert in building U.S. political support for the U.N. and other international institutions, Don brings his considerable enthusiasm and drive to advocating for responsible global policies.
Don has co-chaired three NGO working groups: the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping (PEP), the Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court (WICC), and the CEDAW (women's rights treaty) task force. He has also played a lead role in the Law of the Sea Working Group, a broad group of organizations and trade associations focused on U.S. ratification of the convention.
Don compiles the Global Solution Report Card, an assessment of congressional voting records on global issues. He is a regular contributor the Huffington Post and has been quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and many other publications. He has been interviewed on CNN, BBC, NPR, and many other radio and TV shows.
Don is also a past president emeritus of the Center for UN Reform Education, a UN reform think tank. He currently serves on the boards of PeacePAC, the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, the World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy and the advisory board of the United Nations Association, National Capitol Area.
He lives in Alexandria, Virginia on land once owned by George Washington, with his wife Hope Warshaw and their daughter Hilary.
Recent Blog Posts
President Barack Obama's recent announcement that he believes Syria has used a small amount of chemical weapons ignited a debate. Has the Assad regime crossed the "red line" the White House laid down?
U.S. intelligence reports "varying degrees of confidence" that Syria used chemical weapons. "We have to act prudently," Obama said. "But I think all of us...recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations."
The situation in Syria is clearly dire, with more than 70,000 deaths. Over 2.5 million Syrian refugees (including 600,000 children) have overwhelmed the ability of the United Nations and neighboring countries to provide adequate care. Another 2 million kids are internally displaced within Syria.
But politicians seem more concerned about U.S. credibility than suffering Syrians. So what's next for Washington?
If I were president, I'd try to carefully navigate between two horrendous mistakes my predecessors made:
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Fox News guest commentator, Erik Rush, tweeted "Yes, they're evil. Let's kill them all," to his nearly 40,000 twitter followers. Rush was talking about Muslims, who he had immediately blamed for the bombing.
The shocking and unacceptable nature of his words, however, has much deeper consequences. In the United States, free speech is valued -- after all, it is the first right guaranteed under our constitution. Yet what Rush tweeted is not protected as free speech because it insights violence. If one just ignores his words or dismisses them as being intentionally controversial -- they run the risk of encouraging and promoting hateful ideology and perpetuating the cycle of violence in humanity.
Encouraging others to "kill" an entire certain group -- whether a religious, racial, or ethnic group -- is polarizing and dangerous. Rush might explain the scandal away by saying he was only being sarcastic, but hate speech isn't something that we should ignore or just explain away.
Rush has a global platform that most do not -- he is invited to speak on Fox News as an unpaid commentator. His hate inducing words are completely unacceptable. Fox News should drop Erik Rush from their program, or else they will be endorsing his hateful ideology. It's time to take a deep breath and stop the cycle of violence.
On January 21, 2013 we lost Harlan Smith, educator, world citizen, peace activist, friend and leader. Harlan Smith's legacy will continue to impact thousands of young people and instill in them the desire to become the builders of a better world. What more could one ask for?
Let me tell you about this wonderful man. Harlan was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1914. During his sophomore year in high school he won second place in a peace essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In the essay, entitled "Heroes of Peace," Harlan reached the conclusion that a world government would be desirable to bring peace to the world. It set him on a trajectory that would guide him for the rest of his life.
While attending the University of Chicago, Smith joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a religious pacifist group formed initially by pastors from both sides during World War I and took the Oxford Oath not to participate in war.
After Pearl Harbor he secured a position with the Bureau of Labor Statistics Postwar Division in order to finance an anticipated stay in a conscientious objector camp during the war. He obtained conscientious objector status in 1943 and entered a conscientious objector camp run by the American Friends Service Committee in Big Flats, New York.