Resolving Conflicts Among Nations, People and the Environment
The Global Peace Offensive Center is a joint initiative of the World Academy of Art and Science (WASS), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), and Alma Mater Europaea University (AMEU) dedicated to promoting lasting peace through civil society engagement
The Global Peace Offensive Center is dedicated to promoting lasting peace through civil society engagement worldwide by leveraging education, science, art, and technology as tools of diplomacy. It serves as a hub for dialogue and the exchange of ideas, fostering understanding and cooperation at local, regional, and global levels.
The Center aims to identify and implement measures to resolve conflicts among individuals and nations, as well as to address environmental challenges. Through facilitated dialogue, rigorous research, and community-driven initiatives, it works to build trust, develop practical solutions, and empower communities globally. By emphasizing collaborative partnerships and innovative strategies, the Global Peace Offensive Center aspires to be a catalyst for positive change — striving to create a more peaceful and just world for all.
The Center, located in Maribor, Slovenia, was inaugurated on September 26, 2025. The inauguration ceremony was attended by distinguished leaders, and during the event, the official founding charter was signed by Garry Jacobs, President of the World Academy of Art and Science; Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer, President of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts; and Prof. Dr. Ludvik Toplak, Rector of Alma Mater Europaea University. This signing symbolized a strong commitment from these prominent institutions to support the Center’s goals, aiming to serve as a hub for interdisciplinary research and international cooperation.
The Global Peace Offensive Center’s is founded on a strategic approach to fostering sustainable peace, guided by the principles of the Global Peace Offensive. This initiative is based on incremental, reciprocal steps and concessions for conflict resolution, while emphasizing cultural, scientific, economic, educational, and environmental diplomacy. The strategy focuses on positive reciprocal initiatives for compromise and calls for unilateral, symbolic gestures to encourage reciprocal actions in response.
This Global Peace Offensive aims to create conditions for dialogue, trust, and cooperation, inspired by Charles Egerton Osgood’s GRIT (Graduated Reciprocation in Tension-Reduction) theory from the 1960s, which emphasizes reciprocal gestures to reduce hostility and foster trust. Revisiting Osgood´s theory decades later, Donato Kiniger Passigli WAAS Vice President, re-imagined a Global Peace Offensive as a strategic initiative for peace — a deliberate flipping of the logic of confrontation.
In this sense, the Global Peace Offensive is not an advocacy movement but a facilitative and impartial process. It aims to transform mindsets rather than prescribe outcomes. The operational points of this initiative for peace are reflected in the Vision for a Global Peace Offensive (October 21, 2024) and the Call for Action (March 14, 2025), co-signed by WAAS, EASA, Alma Mater Europaea University, and a growing network of academic and civil-society organizations.
Further insights are provided through articles on how symbolic gestures and inclusive dialogue can erode hostility and spark cooperative behavior:
The efforts of the Global Peace Offensive are supported by a broad network of academic and civil society organizations dedicated to peaceful engagement worldwide. The following organizations have already subscribed to the Vision Statement for a Global Peace Offensive:
The emblem of the Global Peace Offensive Center unites the symbols of its three founding institutions: the World Academy’s globe for global problem-solving, EASA’s lily, also adopted by Alma Mater, for beauty, justice, and stability, and the shared blue color in all three logos for trust, truth, and sustainability.
For inquiries or comments, contact the Global Peace Offensive Center at peace@worldacademy.org
