Our History

In 2001, Milt Lauenstein, a retired corporate executive began to look for the best way to reduce human suffering caused by violent conflict. Over the next several years Milt convened meetings among conflict prevention experts to see what could be done. Among the organizations participating in those meetings were the International Crisis Group, International Alert, Search for Common Ground, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding, Human Rights Internet, the Working Group on Development and Peace, CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, Conciliation Resources, the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, the Life and Peace Institute, the International Peace and Prosperity Project, Intercomm Belfast, the Belfast Local Strategy Partnership, the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, and swisspeace.

In the end, their conclusion to reduce human suffering in war was simple but radical – stop wars before they even start. Several of these conflict prevention experts and Milt became the founders of BEFORE.

This is BEFORE’s early history in Milt’s own words:

“Early in 2001, I decided to try to find a way I might contribute to the reduction of organized violence. I was 75. My first thought was to look for worthy research projects to fund. However, after funding projects and immersing myself in the peace and security world, I observed that much was already known about the causes and cures of violence. Promoting the more effective use of resources already available seemed to merit more support than adding to the large amount of existing knowledge. Moreover, I discovered all the research showed that preventing violence is much more cost-effective than trying to deal with situations in which violence has already erupted, to say nothing of the lives and suffering saved.

So now I am trying to contribute to the prevention of mass violence in fragile states.

I initiated and have been funding an effort called International Peace and Prosperity Project (IPPP) to help the people of a small West African nation, Guinea-Bissau, to avoid violence and to build a stable society in which economic progress can be made since 2004.

Two years later, with great progress in Guinea-Bissau I convened a small group of international experts to devise a way to provide prompt, effective responses to warnings of impending violence. Until now, no such mechanism has existed.

It took another two years, but the group succeeded in establishing BEFORE, formerly known as the Global Crisis Prevention Mechanism (GCPM). The IPPP is now a part of BEFORE’s global effort to provide effective response to warnings of impending violence.”

BEFORE has been nearly fully funded for the last 7 years of its existence thanks to Milt Lauenstein. You can also read more about Milt at BolderGiving – stories of radical giving.