Kenneth R. Rutherford is an American political science professor at James Madison University, co-founder of the Survivor Corps (a group that helps victims of war), and a researcher in the field of political science. He is a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Rutherford has served as the Director of the James Madison University Center for International Stabilization and Recovery, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania (1987–1989), a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Emergency Refugee Coordinator in Senegal (1989), and a humanitarian emergency relief officer in northern Kenya and Somalia (1993). In 2024, Rutherford taught at Hue University in Vietnam as a Fulbright Scholar Fellow.
International work
While studying political science at the University of Colorado Boulder in the mid-1980s, Rutherford decided to work in international development. Since graduating in 1985, he has worked for international aid agencies in Bosnia, Kenya, Mauritania, Senegal and Somalia, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan and Vietnam.
Rutherford began his international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania (1987–1989). During this period he was contracted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assist in refugee camps on the border between Mauritania and Senegal.
He returned to the United States to earn his Executive Master of Business Administration at the University of Colorado, then in 1993 went to work for the International Rescue Committee in Kenya and Somalia, where he was injured by a landmine.
Together with Jerry White he co-founded Landmine Survivors Network in 1995Jerry White, "Landmine Survivors Speak Out," UNIDIR Disarmament Forum; 1999:4. which later became Survivor Corps. He and White accompanied Princess Diana on her last humanitarian mission to visit landmine survivors in Bosnia-Herzegovina in August 1997, only three weeks before her death.Jerry White, I Will Not Be Broken, St. Martin's Press, New York, April 2008; , pages 15–16. Rutherford was a prominent leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2000, he earned his doctorate in political science from Georgetown University.
He was associate professor of political science at Missouri State University from 2002 until 2010. In 2005, Rutherford went to Jordan on a Fulbright Fellowship where he taught international politics at the University of Jordan in Amman.
In 2008, Rutherford played a role in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. He was a board member of Survivor Corps until it closed in September 2010.
In February 2010, Rutherford became Director of the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR), which includes the Mine Action Information Center, at James Madison University. In his capacity as CISR Director, he oversaw and participated in post-conflict missions and projects in numerous countries worldwide, including Burundi, Iraq, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
Landmine accident On December 16, 1993, while working for the International Rescue Committee in Somalia, Rutherford's vehicle struck a landmine, injuring him severely. After a medical evacuation during which he nearly bled to death, one leg was amputated to save his life and the second one amputated several years later. He has since spoken to the United States Congress against landmines."The Global Landmine Crisis," Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, May 13, 1994. STATEMENT OF KENNETH RUTHERFORD, RELIEF WORKER, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE. "It was an experience that fundamentally altered my life for the good," Rutherford said. "It crystallized my vision of what I believe I was put on this Earth to do."
Following this incident, Rutherford focused his advocacy efforts to draft and enact prohibitions on anti-personnel landmines (1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty) and cluster munitions (2008 Cluster Munitions Convention), and promoted the rights and dignity of people with disabilities, resulting in the 2006 Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Together with Jerry White he co-founded Survivor Corps in 1995 which pioneered improvements in war victim assistance, providing amputees with peer mentors, artificial limbs, and job training. White and Rutherford's leadership in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines helped secure the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the Cluster Munitions Ban Treaty.
Publications Articles Ken Rutherford has been published extensively in numerous academic and policy journals, including the Journal of International Law and Policy, World Politics,Ken Rutherford, "The Evolving Arms Control Agenda: Implications of the Role of NGOs in Banning Antipersonnel Landmines," World Politics, Volume 53, Number 1, October 2000, pages 74–114. Journal of International Politics,Ken Rutherford, "A Theoretical Examination of Disarming States: NGOs and Anti-Personnel Landmines," Journal of International Politics, Volume 37, Number 4, (December 2000) pages 457–477. International Journal of World Peace,Ken Rutherford and Richard Matthew, "Banning Landmines in the American Century," International Journal of World Peace, Volume XVI, Number Two (June 1999) pages 23–36. Alternatives,Ken Rutherford and Richard Matthew, "The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Mine Ban Movement," Alternatives: Global and Local Politics. Volume 28, Number 1 (January–February 2003) pages 29–56. Non-Proliferation Review,Ken Rutherford, "The Hague and Ottawa Conventions: A Model for Future Weapon Ban Regimes?" The Nonproliferation Review 6(3), Spring/Summer 1999, pages 36–50. Harvard International Review, The Journal of ERW and Mine Action,Ken Rutherford, "Director's Message," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 14.3, Fall 2010Ken Rutherford, "Peer-to-Peer Support Vital to Survivors," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 14.2, Summer 2010Ken Rutherford, Tracey Begley and Nerina Cevra, "Connecting the Dots: The Ottawa Convention and the CCM," Journal of ERW and Mine Action, Issue 12.2, Winter 2008-2009.Ken Rutherford, "Landmine Victim Assistance and Government Legal Obligation," Journal of Mine Action, Issue 6.1, Winter 2002, pages 52–55. Journal of Transnational Associations,Ken Rutherford, "The landmine ban and NGOs: the role of communications technologies," Journal of Transnational Associations, 2000;2(2000): pages 60–73. Pain Medicine,Lasch K, Lynch NT, Rutherford K, Sherman C, Webster D. "Psychological and Cultural Influences on Pain and Recovery from Landmine Injury." Pain Medicine, 2006;7:S213-S217. International Journal on Grey Literature,Ken Rutherford, "Internet activism: NGOs and the Mine Ban Treaty," International Journal on Grey Literature, Volume 1, Issue 3, pages 99–106, 2000. and Security Dialogue.Stefan Brem and Ken Rutherford, "Walking Together or Divided Agenda?: Comparing Landmines and Small-Arms Campaigns," Security Dialogue, June 2001; Volume 32, 2: pages 169–186. He has contributed book reviews to Armed Forces and Society,Ken Rutherford, "Military-Civilian Interactions: Intervening in Humanitarian Crises by Thomas G. Weiss," Armed Forces and Society, Spring 2002 (Volume 28, Number 3), pages 521–522. and National Security Studies Journal.Ken Rutherford, "Losing Mogadishu: Testing U.S. Policy in Somalia by Jonathan Stevenson," National Security Studies Journal, Volume II, Issue 3 (Summer 1996) pages 133–134.
Books Rutherford is the author of Humanitarianism Under Fire: The US and UN Intervention in Somalia, (2008) and Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines (2011). He has co-edited two books: Reframing the Agenda: The Impact of NGO and Middle Power Cooperation in International Security Policy (2003) and Landmines and Human Security: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy (2004).
America's Buried History: Landmines in the Civil War, (Savas Beatie Press, April 2020) endorsed by His Royal Highness Prince Mired Raad Al-Hussein, United Nations Special Envoy for Landmine Prohibition Treaty; U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy; and Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997) and Chair, Nobel Women's Initiative. Disarming States: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines, (Praeger Press, December 2010) endorsed by Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr, Chairman, Henry L. Stimson Center and former Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs; U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy; Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997); and, Ambassador Karl F. Inderfurth, former U.S. Special Representative for Global Humanitarian Demining. Humanitarianism Under Fire: The US and UN Intervention in Somalia, (Kumarian Press, 2008) endorsed by George E. Shambaugh, Chairman of the Department of Government, Georgetown University; Richard Mathew, Director, Center for Unconventional Security Affairs, University of California, Irvine; U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy; Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997) Human Security and Landmines: International Politics and War's Hidden Legacy, eds. with Richard Matthew and Bryan McDonald (State University of New York Press, 2004, paperback 2006) Reframing the Agenda: The Impact of NGO and Middle Power Cooperation on International Security Policy, with Stefan Brem and Richard Mathew (Greenwood Press, 2003); Forwards by Her Majesty Queen Noor, The Honorable Lloyd Axworthy, Lady Heather Mills McCartney and Sir Paul McCartney, and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy.
Book chapters and contributions Rutherford has contributed chapters to Negotiating Sovereignty and Human Rights,Chapter 11, "The Transnational Effort for Disability Rights: The Marriage of Disability Rights to Human Rights," in Negotiating sovereignty and human rights: actors and issues in contemporary human rights politics, Noha Shawki, Michaelene Cox eds., Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009, Global Society in Transition: An International Politics Reader,"A Theoretical Examination of Disarming States: NGOs and Anti-Personnel Landmines," in Global Society in Transition: An International Politics Reader, Dan Nelson and Laura Neack, eds., New York and The Hague: Kluwer, 2002, pages 271–294. Civil Society in the Information Age,"Essential Partners: Landmines-Related NGOs and Information Technologies," in Civil Society in the Information Age, Peter Hajnal, ed., Aldershot, United Kingdom: Ashgate Press, 2002, pages 95–107. The Landmine Action Smart Book,"Survivor Assistance," in The Landmine Action Smart Book, Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University, 2002, pages 20–31. Primary Care of Landmine Injuries in Africa: A Basic Text for Health Workers,Total p. 72, Primary Care of Landmine Injuries in Africa: A Basic Text for Health Workers, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (2000). Landmine Monitor Report 2000,"State Legal Responsibilities Toward Landmine Survivors," Landmine Monitor Report 2000, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (August 2000) pages 1078–1080. and To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines.Ken Rutherford and Jerry White, "The Role of the Landmine Survivors Network," To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines, Maxwell A. Cameron, Robert J. Lawson and Brian W. Tomlin, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 pages 99–117; Rethinking Sovereignty and Human Rights after the Cold War; Routledge Handbook of Environmental Security; Co-operating Without America: Theories and Case-Studies of Non-Hegemonic Regimes; Encyclopedia of Human Rights; Arms Control History, Theory, and Policy.