Jan Oberg
TFF director

October 26, 2026

Today – under the “USraeli” threat of new “annihilating” bombings – opens the 7th International Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution at Tehran’s University. As far as I can tell, this is the only permanent, advanced peace research institution in West Asia/the Middle East.

Perhaps more countries in that region could be inspired? I mean, how many military “security” institutes and military academies do they have?

Many peace research institutes and university departments have been established since the 1950s in the West. They are now all under attack; some have closed down, some have gone mainstream, yet others kept the name but do nothing to research peace and disseminate results or advice; instead, they cooperate with militarism’s platforms such as the Munich Conference and are careful to never criticise the governments that feed them.

One of the more grotesque, but little noticed, changes is that the once respected US Institute of Peace (1987) is now the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace 😂… They all know that peace is better and more noble than violence so they sell their wars by calling it peace-making.

In my view, it is time for the rest of the world, China not the least, to venture into this academic field with determination and vision.

Why?

Because a world without medical research would have no health. Likewise, a world without peace research will have no peace.

For about ten years, TFF has been associated with peace research in Iran as well as with the Peace Museum in Tehran.

The main driving force behind Iran’s very impressive academic peace research activity is Dr Ali Akbar Alikhani, a professor at the Faculty of World Studies, a dear friend and TFF Associate.

As modest as he is, he has a lifelong, productive commitment to peace and to the academic study of peace in a broad sense. Here is all about his very recent book: “Warm Peace: A Transition From Cold Peace.”

And here is the impressive conference program. I don’t know of a similar initiative in the West, do you?

Neither do I know of any Western capital that has anything like the beautiful, highly active Tehran Peace Museum.

🌅

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