In honor of the 40th anniversary of the 1986 International Year of Peace—established to highlight the link between peace, development, and justice—the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) hosted the 14th session of its “Promise of World Peace” dialogue series.

Titled “A Pragmatic Necessity: Centering Communities and Prevention at the Heart of Peacebuilding,” the hybrid event brought together a cross section of actors to reflect on prerequisites for a peaceful world order. The session was co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Germany to the United Nations, and the Center for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development (SeeD).

In introducing the event, BIC Representative Liliane Nkunzimana, who has led the series over the last three years, described the current moment in world affairs as a period of significant transformation in the work of building a peaceful and prosperous world, and a profound opportunity to define the path ahead. “Let us take a moment to reflect on what exactly we are transitioning toward,” Nkunzimana said, inviting participants to reflect on the prerequisites for a more peaceful world.

Ambassador Thomas Zahneisen, Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany and chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), provided opening remarks on the importance of social cohesion in peace efforts. He noted that while the PBC remains a unique platform for partnership, lasting peace requires constant internal effort. 

“Ultimately, no country and no community anywhere in the world can guarantee its people to live in lasting peace unless they constantly invest in peace with ongoing efforts by the government, communities, and stakeholders,” Zahneisen said. 

Reflecting on recent global crises, Serge Banza, Political Coordinator in the Security Council, Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations, said: “The world of today, for all its material progress, has been found wanting in its ability to care for the needs of all of its inhabitants.”

“However, times of upheaval can also open space for new possibilities,” he added.

Urging leaders to explore new ideas and approaches, Banza also described the heart of the increasingly complex challenges before the world. 

“Numerous conflicts across the globe are in fact rooted in a deeper element which involves the way we as members of the human family perceive each other and relate to one another,” said Banza.

Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi, the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, College Park, expanded on this notion of shared identity in the event’s keynote address, arguing that “peace begins in the conscience” of the individual, maturing through relationships before being institutionalized in laws. 

In her remarks, Mahmoudi referenced The Promise of World Peace, a letter addressed by the Universal House of Justice, the world governing body of the Bahá’í Faith, to all citizens of the world. The document was presented to leaders and many others during the International Year of Peace. 

“Its essential message was both simple but also demanding: that peace is possible, that it is urgently necessary, and that it requires not only new institutions and policies but also a profound transformation in how human beings understand themselves,”Mahmoudi said.

Mahmoudi also explored how communities are a vital arena where constructive relationships can be formed, not as a luxury, but as a “security imperative.”

“Communities are not merely beneficiaries of peace. They are its primary architects,” Mahmoudi said. 

Other participants expanded on the important role of community, with one noting: “Communities are not just sites of intervention, they are sites of intelligence.”

Throughout the dialogue, many participants described the present moment as a “rupture” involving a breakdown of trust, legitimacy, and authority. At the same time, one participant suggested to the group that “broken is not necessarily bad, it is a great opportunity for transformation.”

Spread across two sessions, the dialogue touched further on a wider array of pertinent themes ranging from the need for a new social contract that acknowledges humanity’s interconnectedness; the importance of building on the unique convening and norm-setting role of the UN; the need to reimagine power as trustworthiness, honesty, integrity, and non-violence; and the importance of drawing on indigenous wisdom as a profound source of insight around peacebuilding. Unattributed notes from this and previous installments of the series can be found here.