Peacock

    Center for International Development and Conflict Management       •       College of Behavioral and Social Sciences       •       University of Maryland

About Us

The Bahá'í Chair for World Peace is a non-religious, academic institution with a staff dedicated to scholarship, spirituality, and service. It was created with, and continues to benefit from, the support of the Bahá'í community worldwide, its Advisory Board, other individuals and organizations, and the leadership of the University of Maryland, the College of Behaviorial and Social Sciences, and the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. The current holder of the Chair is Dr. John Grayzel, who assumed the Chair professorship in 2006.

The Chair's history begins with the inauguration in 1993 of Dr. Suheil Bushrui as its first holder. Over thirteen years of dedicated effort, Dr. Bushrui established its core principles, solid credibility, and extensive international involvement. Since it beginnings, the Chair's organizational structure has gradually evolved into what it is today.

Strategic Objectives

Under the direction of Professor John Grayzel, the second incumbent of the Baha'i Chair for World Peace, the Chair is entering a new phase of development. This new phase has three major objectives:

First, institutionalizing the achievements of the Chair’s first incumbent, who established its wide credibility, championed the inclusion of spiritual principles into academic pursuits, and partnered with key leaders and organizations to replace conflict and strife with unity of purpose and mutual understanding.

Second, enhancing the Chair’s influence through more direct engagement in converting knowledge and scholarship into collaborative programs for real world problem solving.

Third, engaging in the establishment of associated institutions, programs, and capacities in pursuit of creating enduring cooperative networks in harmony with the Chair's principles and purposes.

Compelling Concerns

Through both scholarship and engagement, the Chair seeks to contribute directly to the mitigation of conflict and the promotion of peace. In doing so, the Chair stresses the application of those foundation principles of the world's religions and spiritual traditions that have repeatedly provided the underpinning of most human societies. Such principles include:

• Promotion of unity of community and reciprocity of assistance;
• Adherence to standards of truth and justice;
• Reflection on higher principles and greater meanings;
• Promotion of the general welfare and social harmony;
• Stewardship and responsibility for both self and surroundings.

To these principles the Chair adds tenets fundamental to the Bahá'í model, which include: the abolition of prejudice and the appreciation of diversity, equality of men and women, universal education, independent investigation of truth, and the harmony of religion and science.

Chair Activities

The activities of the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace center on its mission for empirical study, objective presentation, reflective analysis, and pragmatic application of ethical and spiritual principles to questions of international peace, social justice, human security, and equitable access to goods, services, and knowledge. In pursuit of these objectives, the Chair shares the experiences of the Bahá’í world community as a model for study along with directly collaborating on existing and proposed approaches for establishing peace on all levels of human society —, individual, group, and institutional —, as well as the behavioral level of institutional organizations and social values and and beliefs.

In practice, commensurate with its resources, the Chair focuses on a modest number of problem areas nested in one of four fundamental levels of human dynamics:

On the individual level: Advancement of universal education and capacity building for responsible adulthood — with particular concern for moral education and positive socialization of youth appropriate to their circumstances and life-long learning for adults.

On the group level: Identification and implementation of practices that engender group unity - with particular emphasis on improving processes of consultation and cooperation for effective collaboration on both private and public endeavors.

On the institutional level: Reform of the ways by which society governs its affairs — with particular consideration of the establishment of global standards for the recognition and exercise of stewardship and sovereignty commensurate with improving all forms of human security.

On the level of values and beliefs: Systematic inclusion and empirical assessment of moral and spiritual considerations in both local and international development activities — with particular attention to the formulation, application, and evaluation of indicators of spiritual principles relevant to guiding efforts towards the mitigation of conflict and the creation of positive social constructs and a unity of conscience among interdependent parties.