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Center for Civil Society International records
2009C18
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Title: Center for Civil Society International records
Date (inclusive): 1948-2008
Collection Number: 2009C18
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
117 manuscript boxes
(46.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, reports, directories, lists, pamphlets, serial issues, and circulated material, relating to voluntary associations
in the former Soviet Union, exchanges and person-to-person contacts, religion, peace movements, human rights, and promotion
of democracy and citizenship. Includes many publications collected by the Center. Also includes records of the Center's predecessor
organization, the Northwest Regional Office of the World without War Council.
Creator:
World Without War Council
Creator:
Center for Civil Society International
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2009.
[Identification of item], Center for Civil Society International records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution
Library & Archives.
The World Without War Council, a national American private nonprofit organization, was founded in 1958 with the primary goal
of promoting alternatives to war, and with subsidiary goals of promoting civic education, international understanding and
democratic government. Its regional office in Seattle, Washington, successively titled the World Without War Council of Greater
Seattle and the World Without War Council Northwest Regional Office, was the predecessor organization of the Center for Civil
Society International.
The Seattle office transformed itself into the Center for Civil Society International in 1992. This act reflected a realization
of the profound changes in the international situation following the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War. The new focus of the Center became promotion of
democratic values and civil reconstruction in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. It sought to act as
a clearinghouse for contacts between non-governmental organizations in the United States and elsewhere interested in providing
technical and other assistance in the new states, and grassroots non-governmental organizations in those countries.
M. Holt Ruffin became executive director of the World Without War Council of Greater Seattle in 1984 and remained as executive
director of the Center for Civil Society International. The Hoover Institution Library & Archives acquired the records of
the Center in 2008.
Scope and Content of Collection
Records of both the Center for Civil Society International and of its predecessors, the World Without War Council of Greater
Seattle and World Without War Council Northwest Regional Office, are included. The collection is divided into two series.
The Central Organizational Files series contains filing sequences that transcend specific topics and that reflect the continuing
life of the organization throughout its temporal stages. Material within this series is arranged by physical form. Notably
it includes chronologically arranged correspondence, predominantly outgoing, and chronologically arranged internal documents
of other types, including minutes and memoranda. Governing documents, periodical reports of activities, financial records,
and some issuances of the organization and its officials may also be found here.
The Subject File series contains material grouped by topic. The main division within the Subject File is between a General
subseries of materials not dealing with specific countries on the one hand, and materials arranged alphabetically by country
on the other hand. Correspondence with, and published and unpublished issuances of, a wide range of voluntary and other non-governmental
organizations, make up the bulk of the Subject File material. The largest volume of material by geographic region concerns
the successor republics to the Soviet Union, especially Russia, Ukraine and the Central Asian states. Economic and political
reform, civic education, human rights, health and environmental issues, religion, exchange visits, and telecommunication and
person-to-person contacts are among the aspects treated. There is also a considerable volume of earlier material from the
1980s, dealing especially with Central America and the Soviet Union, and including material on peace and disarmament movements,
as well as exchange and person-to-person contacts and human rights concerns.
Arranged in two series, Central Organizational Files, and Subject files. The main division within the Subject File is between
a General subseries of materials not dealing with specific countries on the one hand, and materials arranged alphabetically
by country on the other hand.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Democracy
Peace
United States -- Relations -- Soviet Union
Soviet Union -- Relations -- United States
Civil rights
Religion
United States -- Relations -- Former Soviet republics
Former Soviet republics -- Relations -- United States
United States -- Relations -- Europe, Eastern
Europe, Eastern -- Relations -- United States