U7+ Alliance Calls on G7 Leaders to Prioritize Peace and Security Issues
From March 16 to 17 more than 75 university leaders from 16 countries convened at Keio University in Japan to encourage the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized democracies to invest in peace and security education and research at all levels.
Georgetown University is a member of the U7+ Alliance, a network of higher education institutions committed to serving the global common good; U7+ leaders convene every year in G7 host countries. Vice President for Global Engagement Thomas Banchoff represented Georgetown at the Tokyo conference.
“The world has seen significant innovation in warfare; it is now time for innovation in peace and security,” the Tokyo Statement of the Alliance to the G7 reads. It calls for the promotion of “comprehensive, long-term, and complex understandings of the patterns and processes that lead to sustainable peace, including strong institutions, economic stability, and social inclusion.”
A U7+ delegation shared the statement with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a private meeting on March 15. The Japanese government plans to showcase the security issue at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima from May 19 to 21 of this year.
“Our conversations in Tokyo centered on peace and security but also addressed challenges facing the higher education sector around the world,” said Georgetown’s vice president for global engagement, Thomas Banchoff.
"The U7+ is an increasingly impactful forum for bringing university perspectives to bear on the global agenda."
The inaugural meeting of the U7+ Alliance was hosted by Sciences Po in Paris in 2019, with the support of French President Emmanuel Macron. Northwestern University serves as home to the Secretariat for the alliance. The University of Toronto currently chairs the Presidential Steering Committee, whose members also include Georgetown University, Keio University, the University of Mannheim, Université de Montréal, and Sciences Po.