Akademik

   In 1966, nine churches started the IKVin order to stimulate discussions about war and peace. The IKV became known with the 1977 campaign “Rid the world of nuclear weapons, starting with the Netherlands” and its participation in the Komitee Kruisraketten Nee (No Cruise Missiles Committee) in 1982. The IKV made many contacts with Eastern European churches to stimulate detente between East and West during the Cold War. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the IKV has chosen other focal points, for example, Yugoslavia in the 1990s. One of its leading fig ures was Mient Jan Faber (1940– ), IKV secretary from 1974 until 2004; currently he is political director of the Helsinki Citizens’As sembly (since 1994) and extraordinary professor of citizens’involve ment in war situations at the Free University of Amsterdam. Since 2007, the IKV has cooperated closely with the Dutch department of the Roman Catholic organization Pax Christi.