2020 World Peace Academic ConferenceSpecial thanks to: Frank Kaufmann, Gordon Anderson, Robert Schairer, Ken Sohn
In the warm glow of World Peace Summit 2020 at the spacious Kintex Convention Center just outside of Seoul on February 4 and 5, 2020 the Professors World Peace Academy brought together serious, cheerful, and very varied scholars with centuries of combined academic and field experience. The corona pandemic raging in the world at large did not faze the serene participants from meeting to share hearts and minds.
The theme of “peace” and how to achieve this global vision was altogether timely. Political opinions differed but the overall goal of our striving did not. Presenters hailed from the USA, Senegal, France, Korea, Luxembourg, Austria and Jordan. Eleven talks lasted two full days, concluding with the Inauguration of IAAP (International Association of Academicians for Peace, signed by over a dozen representative leaders.
PWPA has in fact done more for world peace over the last nearly fifty years than meets the eye. Who actually ended the Cold War? If you ask the man on the street in Moscow, they’ll say, “Blue jeans and the Beatles.” That’s fun; ‘70s rock-n-roll indeed rolled from every street corner after the liberation of the Soviet Union. But more deeply, it was not military, nor economic, nor cultural events that clinched the amazingly peaceful reconciliation of 1991. It was none other than the combined work of PWPA scholars such as Morton Kaplan (rest his soul), great leaders such as the Gipper (Ronald Reagan), the wisdom and foresight of Mikhail Gorbachev, but above all Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s careful, prayerful, long-term strategy that brought fruition through a host of initiatives on all fronts, stretching back to 1945.
The wide spectrum of highly individual, personally engaged, creatively insightful professors like Joseph Terwilliger who met Kim Jong-un, Tom Ward and Bill Lay who crafted CAUSA, Rima Salah from Jordan who understood both sides in the Mideast, Emmanuel Dupuy and Oumar Ndongo whose lives are devoted to the rise of Africa, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges former Luxembourg Member of Parliament, Cole Durham an expert on Constitutional law, and Werner Fasslabend and Walter Feichtinger who lived and dealt with the intense showdown of East and West—all shared gripping personal stories and imparted timeless wisdom and advice with several hundred likewise educated colleagues from around the world.
Combining the efforts of UTI (Unification Thought Institute), CAUSA and VOC (Victory Over Communism) movement, the following PWPA scholars lectured:
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2020 World Peace Academic Conference (Section 2, Feb. 4–5, Kintex Mall)
Dr. Thomas J. Ward (USA) Rev. Moon’s Contribution to the End of the Cold War and a Vision for World Peace
Mr. Bill Gertz (USA) The Washington Times and the End of the Cold War
Hon. Dr. Werner Fasslabend (Austria) New Challenges Need New Identities
Prof. Robert Schairer (USA)
Dr. Emmanuel Dupuy (France) A Vision for World Peace: Regional Perspectives in the Europe—Africa Region
Prof. Oumar Ndongo (Senegal) Teranga and Pleasant Parent Kinship as Strategies to Ensure Peaceful Co-existence in Senegalese society
Dr. Choi Choon-Heum (Korea)
Dr. Rima Salah (Jordan) Global Vision for Peace: A Participatory and Integrated Approach
Hon. Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (Luxembourg) Civilization for Peace
Dr. Walter Feichtinger (Austria)
Dr. William D. Lay (USA) Judicial Recognition of Fundamental Rights: Human Security Consideration
Prof. Cole Durham (USA) The Contributions of Religious Civil Society to the Rule of Law
Prof. Joseph Terwilliger (USA), Geneticist and Professor of Neurobiology at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. A Curious Scientist’s Approach to Understanding Others as People
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Each of the scholars, publicists, lawyers, scientists, and public activists gave their whole heart passionately based on a lifetime of hard work, study and field experience dealing with people of all walks of life. Each of their stories held us at rapt attention, giving a deep and lasting, poignant and motivating impression to us in the course of a scant 15—20 minutes.
