Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum

The 1996 Nobel Prize Laureate and Former President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta expresses his concern that the United Nations is sidelined and unable to mobilize international good will and discharge its responsibilities in addressing humanitarian and security crises taking place in Africa, Asia and the Middles East. The solutions to these challenges, he suggests, can be found only when the major powers get together and build bridges among them and enhance their mutual understanding and consensus in order to address the global challenges the humanity is facing.

This is the second meeting of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum following its inauguration in 2018. It is organized by the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ) in cooperation with the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office. The purpose of the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is to enable the members of GPAJ and interested scholars and practitioners of UN peace operations to engage in dialogue concerning the relevance of theories, concepts, policies and practices. This year, the overall theme of the meeting is “Peacebuilding and Global Governance in a Turbulent Age.” The participants will have opportunities to present and comment on papers that are relevant to peacebuilding and global governance. The meeting will consist of a plenary session in the morning and several group discussion sessions in the afternoon. The subject matters for discussion are indicated in the program outline below. If there is a need for additional group discussions, it is possible to add one more discussion session in the afternoon as meetings rooms have been secured. The Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum is open to participation by interested persons from not only Japan but other countries in order to enable free exchange of divergent views. For this purpose, the plenary session in the morning and two of the group discussion sessions in the afternoon will be held in English. Summary records of the proceeding will be kept by the secretariat and posted on the website of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (http://www.gpaj.org/) and the ACUNS Tokyo Liaison Office (http://www.acuns.tokyo/). You are welcome to participate in the Tokyo Peacebuilding Forum. Please note that the participants are expected to meet themselves the costs of their travel and accommodation as GPAJ has no funds to make available for this purpose. If you are interested in participating in the meeting, please send your message to secretariat[@]gpaj.org. Your message will be sent to the organizers/moderators of respective sessions.