The U.S. Association for the University for Peace (UPEACE/US) was founded in 2006 to promote and advance The United Nations mandated University for Peace and the practice of education for peace in the United States. 

•    We educate & train for peace:

In our ‘education and training for peace’ programs we strive to advance peace education at home and abroad.  We engage elementary school teachers and administrators in our own backyard – the Washington D.C public school system.  As a result of our program entitled "DCPEACE", both teachers and students are equipped with practical skills for preventing and resolving conflicts and building peace in their communities.  We continue to develop and implement innovative ways to bring peace education to the forefront of public thought, fostering the next generation of peacebuilders in the US.

On our international front we also deliver highly interactive and innovative short courses and training workshops in conjunction with UPEACE professors and through a unique educational partnership with the UPEACE Center for Executive and Professional Education.  Courses are offered on a variety of topics including: Nonprofit Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship, and Corporate Social Responsibility.  Through these courses, professionals gain the practical skills necessary to maximize their impact as peacebuilders.

•    We manage the Global Network for Upeacebuilders

At UPEACE/US, we are working to develop and maintain a robust UPEACE alumni community.  To achieve this, we have created the Global Network for Upeacebuilders (www.upeacebuilders.org).
Upeacebuilders.org is a virtual human network designed to connect UPEACE alumni, allowing them a platform to launch innovative initiatives with like-minded individuals and institutions.
Upeacebuilders is one of the most diverse and close-knit networks of peacebuilders in the world.  And we are continually striving to expand beyond our alumni base to include other impassioned organizations and individuals who seek a forum to bring together ideas and to bring those ideas to fruition.

Visit us at www.upeacebuilders.org.

•    We support the strategic development of the UPEACE system

In collaboration with UPEACE, we work to recruit students, raise funds, bridge partnerships, support the UPEACE Africa program, and increase visibility for the university within the United States.
By fostering relationships that advance the operations of the UPEACE system and securing resources that enhance the quality and depth of UPEACE programs, we aim to help establish UPEACE as the worldwide leading institution in peace education.

In 1980, the countries of the world met at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to develop a novel and creative solution to address the numerous and increasingly complex challenges facing humanity. Their goal was to create a world-class graduate school for future leaders to come together and study peace in its many manifestations. The result of that goal was the United Nations-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE).  But creating and sustaining a global institution of higher learning from scratch is no easy feat: it takes lots of support from a number of places.  UPEACE/US is a huge part of that support. The UPEACE/US story is quite simply a story about the inspiration and innovation of a small but dedicated group of UPEACE alumni. A group who believed in the need and importance of the University for Peace so much so that they devoted countless hours of time, resources and energy to establish UPEACE as the UN intended it to be 28 years ago.

While working two part-time jobs to sustain herself, Stephanie Gliege‘04 was asked by a former UPEACE rector to begin research on public charities in the United States with the goal to create a US-based institution to support the University for Peace. Several months into her research and the eventual founding of UPEACE/US, Stephanie enlisted the help of Nick Martin ’06, who was then only a graduate student and Rebecca Harned ’05 who worked for a PR firm in D.C. The three met over coffee in Costa Rica and started working tirelessly to build UPEACE/US from the ground up.

 Needing to demonstrate the quality of UPEACE graduates and remind the world of their  commitment to the university and education for peace, Nick brought 12 alumni from around the world to the United Nations Headquarters in New York under the umbrella of UPEACE/US . Alumni from Ecuador, Nigeria, Canada, South Korea, Pakistan, Romania, Lebanon, India, Colombia, and the United States were selected to represent UPEACE/US. For two weeks, this remarkable team visited 50 UN diplomatic missions and UN agencies, held two major public events, recruited students, met with foundations, and generated significant interest and attention for UPEACE. Many came great distances, spent their own money, and used their entire vacation for the year, just to be able to raise awareness and funds for UPEACE.

Inspired by the work of these alumni, a handful of new donors took notice and began providing critical seed funding to UPEACE/US.  In a year and a half, UPEACE/US had grown from a conversation over Costa Rican coffee to a small but full-fledged organization based in Washington D.C. We make no deceptions: we’re not professional fundraisers – we’re hardworking, resourceful, young, and entrepreneurial alumni – and we do a lot with a little. We do this work, often involving great sacrifice, because we deeply value the experience that we had at UPEACE and we believe in its ever increasing relevance and importance to the world in the years to come.

Headquartered in Costa Rica, the United Nations-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) was established in December 1980 as a Treaty Organization by the UN General Assembly. As determined in the Charter of the University and endorsed by the UPEACE Council, the mission of the University for Peace is: “to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.”

At present, the UPEACE Costa Rica Campus has 110 students from 42 different countries, making it one of the most diverse universities in the world for its size. UPEACE is the only institution in the UN family authorized to grant degrees at the Master's and Doctoral levels. The language of instruction is English.

To ensure academic freedom, the University was established under its own Charter, approved by the United Nations General Assembly. UPEACE is not subject to UN regulations and is directed by its own Council of renowned personalities with expertise in peace and security matters. This has allowed the University to move rapidly and to innovate, focusing its new, rigorous academic programme on the fundamental causes of conflict through a multidisciplinary, multicultural-oriented approach. The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon is the Honorary President of the University. Costa Rica Campus The wider mission of the University should be seen in the context of the worldwide peace and security objectives of the United Nations. The central importance of education, training and research in all their aspects to build the foundations of peace and progress and to reduce the prejudice and hatred on which violence, conflict and terrorism are based is increasingly recognized. The Charter of the University calls for UPEACE “to contribute to the great universal task of educating for peace by engaging in teaching, research, post-graduate training and dissemination of knowledge fundamental to the full development of the human person and societies through the interdisciplinary study of all matters related to peace”. Funding of UPEACE programmes comes from the support of a number of donor governments, foundations and institutions who believe in the mission of the University. Fundraising for an endowment fund is in progress. The vision of UPEACE is to become a network of collaborating UPEACE centres and activities in different regions, guided from its headquarters in Costa Rica and cooperating with a large number of universities, NGOs and other partners on education and research for peace.

UPEACE has eight one-year masters programmes at its Costa Rica Campus: International Law and Human Rights, International Law and the Settlement of Disputes, Gender and Peace Building, International Peace Studies, Peace Education, Environmental Security and Peace, and Media and Conflict and Peace. UPEACE also offers a Dual Graduate Programme at the Master’s level with American University in Washington D.C. After two years of academic work, these students receive an MA in International Affairs from American University's School of International Service and an MA in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development from UPEACE. In addition to its Costa Rica headquarters, the UPEACE system includes offices in Geneva and New York City, the Africa Regional Programme office in Addis Ababa, and the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Programme office in Costa Rica. Other regional programmes in Asia and the Pacific, and Central Asia are in development, as are other international centres. The UPEACE Sharing Knowledge for Peace Programme (SKP) is a distance learning initiative which ensures that those unable to attend courses in Costa Rica or in one of the other UPEACE locations are reached through state-of-the-art dissemination methods.