About the Author

Three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee SCILLA ELWORTHY, PhD, founded the Oxford Research Group in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. Their work included a series of dialogues between Chinese, Russian, and NATO nuclear scientists and the military, which formed the basis for later treaties. She founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote, and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas, leading to the UN accepting the value and cost effectiveness of "locally-led" initiatives. Elworthy was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003. She was adviser to Peter Gabriel, Desmond Tutu, and Richard Branson in setting up The Elders and currently advises the boards of major international companies on future planning. She's chair of the Civil Society sector of the Hanwang Forum in China; a Councillor of the World Future Council; author of numerous books; a patron of Gender Rights and Equality Action Trust, MasterPeace, Oxford Research Group; and a member of the steering Committee of PAX, a service to help prevent wars and genocides. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented at the Voice of a Woman ceremony in July 2013.

Reviews

“Let this book wake you up to your own inner power—the capacity now required to help resolve global problems and build a world that works for all.”
—Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

“A work of lasting impact. Visionary is much too small a word to describe Scilla Elworthy.… Alongside an empathetic analysis of ‘some of the giants who have shown the way,’ this wise woman—herself a towering figure—offers readers a huge and motivating gift: an explanation of how ordinary individuals can change the world, and why they must wake up and do it.”—Ambassador Swanee Hunt, chair and founder  of the Institute for Inclusive Security; Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

“They say it is better to light a candle than curse the dark. In this great book Scilla Elworthy sets the context of where we are as a society and shines a veritable searchlight on many practical and positive suggestions to some of today’s most intractable problems. A must-read for all those who want to be part of the solution!”—Lawrence Bloom, former chairman of the World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Council on Urban Management

“We need women like Scilla Elworthy to challenge us to reorder our perspectives by drawing on the feminine in us all, including men, and finding the balance between ‘… the psychological and the political, between reflection and action’ so vital to a new world in which peace, equity, and justice might prevail.”—Jane Tewson, CBE, cofounder of Comic Relief

“This is a book about radical leadership; it will give you the essential skills and inner power to help build a world that works for all, and to have a great time doing it.”—Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google and author of Search Inside Yourself

“This remarkable book serves as an intense course in human development in the light of social and ecological change.…”—Jean Houston, PhD, consultant to the United Nations in human development, author of The Wizard of Us

“This book by Scilla Elworthy is worthy of a strong push from all of us. If we are to create a sustainable civilization at his point in history (and we must, in order to survive) it is precisely this thinking and writing that must prevail.”—Edgar Mitchell, ScD, NASA astronaut, pilot of Apollo 14