Peace Memo

Date: February 13, 2011

To: 1311 students

From: Derek James

Subject: University for Peace

Many people strive for peace in today’s society. They go about it in many ways: helping a certain community, offering help for a stranger, or even just helping a neighbor bring in their groceries. These all lead to the same thing: peace. Everyone wants this same goal of achieving peace with everyone else. However, there are many different ways people go about this. The most unfortunate way is to gain peace through war. It is the exact opposite of how peace should be achieved, but sometimes it is inevitable and unavoidable to have all this violence and destruction. However, the University for Peace has a different mission. The founders have constructed this university to gain peace through one way: education. They feel that this is the only real effective way that societies can bond with each other.

The University for Peace is located in Costa Rica, with many other offices located around the world. It was founded in December 1980 and is mandated by the United Nations. Their mission is to teach all the different forms of peace in the world, so that everyone can live in harmony with one another without any conflict. They have many areas of expertise for their students to learn in including “teaching, research, post-graduate training, and dissemination of human knowledge.” UPEACE also feels that peace should not be viewed negatively and through conflict, but with education, which has not been used as much due to ignorance of different societies. They feel that no society can completely end conflict unless they are taught about peace. Another belief of the university is that if education has gotten everyone this far, then peace can be taken to the next level through education.

UPEACE has a variety of different programs that students can take part in. These include a master’s program, opportunities to go abroad for a semester, training and workshops, and sharing the knowledge of theirs with other societies. The master’s programs include environmental, gender, and conflict studies as well as actually being able to teach peace yourself. In addition to these programs, there are special master’s programs that students can option to take which include an Asia Leaders program, studies in natural resources and peace, and a dual program jointed with the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies located in Korea. The semester abroad program allows graduate students from other universities to take a course or two at UPEACE for full credit. There is also a Diplomat in Residence program that allows students to take extra classes on their own that they find interesting and relevant to what they are learning about at the moment.

These academic programs help to ensure the teaching of peace and allow students to be able to spread peace around the world with their peace studies degrees. The world would definitely change if more people decide to invest their time in getting a degree in one of these areas and would also find it rewarding to know that they are making a difference in the world.