The participants will be young people aged 18-30 who have been accepted on the basis of detailed applications and recommendations. The workshop is planned to open in autumn 2001. The steering committee and the Council of the Global Initiative will carry forward the development of the Workshop until then. Overall co-ordinator is Roland Schutzbach, who founded the Global Initiative in 1994. Our time urgently needs a new kind of thinking about peace and about the future.
Concepts relating to short-term goals are inadequate.
We need a kind of philosophical thinking and attitude which are global and long-term and will result in actions which are inspired by a sense of responsibility for our planet and an enthusiasm for new social, political and economic forms. By philosophy we mean a path of self-development through spiritual practice and meditation, leading to a transformation of the individual which makes them better able to respond to the real needs of the world situation. The Peace Workshop has as its aim the eventual realisation of a world community of peoples. The Workshop will therefore engage in practical social and political projects in the areas of ecology and sustainable development aimed at increasing both the sense of the oneness of humanity and of our common responsibility for the future. Artistic, social, political, economic, ecological and practical subjects will be tackled in a way consistent with the fundamental philosophical attitude stated above.