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Don Kraus
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 202-330-4103
Contact Don
Don Kraus is the Chief Executive Officer of Citizens for Global Solutions, a national membership organization dedicated to building a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone. He previously served as the organization's 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 currently co-chairs three NGO working groups: the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping (PEP), the Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court (WICC), and the CEDAW (womens rights treaty) task force. He also plays 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 annual assessment of congressional voting records. 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 board of PeacePAC, the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship 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
This year as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s 83rd birthday, I’m struck by the vast difference between his beliefs and today’s “peace candidate”, Representative Ron Paul. In New Hampshire, Paul received 47 percent of the under 30 vote compared to 25 percent for Mitt Romney. It’s easy to understand Paul’s youth appeal. He would avoid “long and expensive land wars,” would immediately withdraw from Afghanistan, has railed against the draft and supports legalizing marijuana.
But let’s be clear: Ron Paul is no Martin Luther King. While Dr. King most likely would have supported Paul’s call for bringing troops home from Afghanistan, King’s understanding of what peace means is almost the opposite of Paul’s.
Syria lives in a very flammable neighborhood, surrounded by Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. The neighbors are getting very worried that the escalation of violence in Syria could quickly spread to surrounding nations, and are taking steps to prevent the flames from spreading. It's time for the U.N. Security Council to support this effort and help form a neighborhood fire brigade that can prevent a civil war and protect the Syrian people.
Today, Syria announced it was "in talks" with the Arab League to send civilian and military observers into the country in the hopes of ending the violence that has wracked the country for eight months.
But if experience tells us anything, President Bashir al-Assad's talk is cheap and is just permitting him more time for tactical stalling.
The situation in Syria is rapidly devolving into a civil war. Embassies are being attacked, and defectors from the military are meeting violence with violence. The international community's window of opportunity to protect Syrian civilians is closing.
While the Arab League threatened to suspend Syria's membership in the organization, it has given the Assad regime one last chance to cooperate before continuing on the path of isolating the regime. This proposal would allow civilian and military observers to enter Syria to determine if the Assad regime is complying with ending the violence against civilians.