Peter Ackerman
| Peter Ackerman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 6, 1946 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | PhD |
| Alma mater | Colgate University and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Years active | 1973 to present |
| Employer | Rockport Capital |
| Board member of | Council on Foreign Relations |
Peter Ackerman (born November 6, 1946) is a businessman, the founder and former chairman of Americans Elect, and is founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Ackerman is currently the managing director of Rockport Capital, Inc.
Peter Ackerman was born in New York City, New York. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Colgate University. After graduating from Colgate, he attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he earned a Ph.D. in 1976 in International Relations. While at Tufts, he studied under Gene Sharp and Robert Pfaltzgraff. Ackerman's thesis, Strategic Aspects of Nonviolent Resistance Movements, examined the nonviolent strategy and tactics used by people who are living under oppression and have no viable military option to free themselves.
In 1983 Ackerman co-founded the Albert Einstein Institute, which according to Bloomberg News, "advises pro-democracy activists on how to topple dictators via protests and mock elections". In 1989 Ackerman consulted with student protestors from China following the Tiananmen Square incident. In 1990 he moved to London where he was a visiting scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. During this time he co-authored the book Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century with Christopher Kruegler.
Ackerman was also a series editor and principal content advisor in the television version of Steve York's 1999 Emmy-nominated film A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict, which charts the history of civilian-based resistance in the 20th Century, and co-authored with Jack DuVall a book of the same title. In 2002, Ackerman was the Executive Producer of the PBS documentary Bringing Down A Dictator, which chronicled the fall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic by nonviolent means. The documentary, produced and directed by Steve York, received a 2003 Peabody Award and was the recipient of the 2002 ABC News VideoSource Award of the International Documentary Association. Eli J. Lake stated that Ackerman's book was in fact one of the blueprints used by the Optor movement that overthrew Miloslevic.
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