World peace is out of fashion: not even pacifists believe in it nowadays, wrote Susan Sontag. Yet a series of recent UN reviews came to the conclusion that peace is fundamental to the achievement of other goals. The peace imperative was recognised by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which call for peaceful and inclusive societies. This talk examines the challenges that make world peace so difficult, considers past efforts and ideas, and introduces some tangible steps that can be taken to better organise the world for peace.

Alex Bellamy is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect at the University of Queensland, Australia. His forthcoming book is “East Asia’s Other Miracle: Explaining the Decline of Mass Atrocities” (Oxford, 2017).

The seminar will be followed by drinks. All welcome.