On 1 – 5 May 2024, Dr. Nichan Singhaputargun, Acting Director of the Asian Research Center for International Development, Acting Head of the Global Relations Division, and lecturer of the School of Social Innovation participated in the Asia Peace Innovators Forum 2024 in Salzburg, Austria.
The Asia Peace Innovators Forum, a joint initiative of Salzburg Global Seminar with The Nippon Foundation, bring together mid-career professionals to promote peace and reconciliation initiatives across Asia. Launched in 2020, the Forum fosters collaboration and knowledge exchange among peace innovators from various sectors, helping them build a transboundary network to share community-driven approaches and best practices.
Following online and in-person meetings, participants explored potential collaborations on projects of mutual interest. Dr. Singhaputargun’s project, titled "Bridging Peace", proposes Mae Fah Luang University, with its focus on internationalisation, global citizenship and education, as a "Safe Space” for fostering humanitarian, peace, and cultural corridors by building a youth peace network in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
The project team brings together representatives from higher education institutions, peace agencies, media, and international donors across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand to foster collaboration within the GMS. Dr. Singhaputargun emphasised the project's potential to promote social harmony, address incompatibilities, and enhance sustainability in these three countries, focusing on empowering youth as agents of peace in the GMS. He added that successful selection by the Salzburg Global Seminar and The Nippon Foundation would enable the project's positive impact.
