Coming of age during the height of the Cold War, John Marks eschewed his father’s wish that he take over the family insurance business, and instead joined the U.S. Foreign Service. In his own words: “I wanted to go out into the world—and change it.” This act of resistance in his youth would mark a lifetime of challenging authority and the status quo—for the purpose of bettering society.
Marks’ government service included a diplomatic tour in Vietnam, where he witnessed firsthand the devastating effects from lack of understanding about a country and its people and the harm inflicted by the American war effort. Even while working in government, he became staunchly opposed to the war and lobbied superiors to pull out of Vietnam.
A few years later, John took on an even more controversial topic—the CIA—during a historic time of the Agency’s reported misdeeds and misconduct. Marks co-authored The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence with Victor Marchetti in 1974 and published The Search for the Manchurian Candidate in 1979, both controversial and widely read books that contributed in part to reformative measures to curb the CIA’s extrajudicial acts and culture.
John soon came to see the limits of the adversarial quality of his work—which was mostly defined by what he was against. Instead of tearing down the old system, he wanted to build a new one. In order to promote sustainable change, John saw that he needed to work with, not against, the people with whom he disagreed.
In 1982, as the Cold War raged and the U.S. and Soviet Union were locked in a nuclear arms race, Marks saw an opportunity to build, in order to change relations between the superpowers from adversarial to collaborative. He founded an organization called Search for Common Ground with a mission “to understand the differences; act on the commonalities.”
“Back then, we had two employees, a handful of supporters, and a minuscule budget. And we had the audacity to think we could change the world – from a win-lose, you-or-me environment, to a win-win, you-and-me place.”
With the help of his wife Susan Collin Marks, a South African peace activist who would join him in leading the organization, the pair grew Search for Common Ground into the largest conflict prevention organization in the world, with a staff of over 600 in 55 offices in 34 countries, across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the United States. In 2018, Search for Common Ground was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
John also founded Common Ground Productions to support the use of film, television and radio in conflict resolution, and has produced or executive-produced TV series in more than 20 countries.
Having stepped aside from leadership of the organization in 2014, John continues to engage deeply with the issues of conflict in our world. He currently serves as the founder and managing director of Confluence International, an Amsterdam-based NGO that specializes in Track II diplomacy and in TV production to promote social change. His latest book, From Vision to Action: Remaking the World through Social Entrepreneurship due to release September 3, 2024, offers a practical guide to the underlying principles of social entrepreneurship drawing from his extraordinary journey as a social entrepreneur for peace.
John graduated from Cornell University and was a Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. He has an honorary PhD from the UN’s University of Peace in Costa Rica. With his wife, Susan Collin Marks, he is a Skoll Awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, and is also an Ashoka Senior Fellow. Together they now live in Amsterdam, as John continues to write, advise, and work for a world without violence.
Please join us for a conversation with this visionary activist to help illuminate the deeper ways we might use our voice and challenge the status quo in support of peace. The call will be moderated by Janessa Gans Wilder and David Bonbright. Janessa is a former CIA officer turned peacebuilder and Michael Gordon, a retired professor of Social Entrepreneurship, and David is a serial social entrepreneur, and currently serving as a Leadership Group Member at Ashoka.
