Dr Scilla Elworthy will be in conversation with Dr Annette Idler about her work as aworld-renowned peace activist on understanding and responding to violent non-state groups from a human perspective.

Dr Elworthy set up Peace Direct in 2003 in order to support local peace-builders in conflict areas. Prior to that, she served as executive director to the Oxford Research Group, an NGO she founded in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics, for which she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize. From 2005 she also advised Peter Gabriel, Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson in setting up The Elders. She is a member of the World Future Council and co-founded Rising Women Rising World.