This book presents a multidisciplinary array of essays offering new perspectives on how religion can affect the pursuit of world peace in the age of globalisation. The collection features contributions from scholars, peace activists, political figures, and theologians from across the world’s major religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

The Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative was established in 2002 by Dr Kamran Mofid. Its goal is to unite representatives of the world’s religions in developing an understanding of globalisation not merely in terms of economic relations and mercantile forces, but as enabling positive intercultural and interfaith encounters. The aim is to bring different cultures and faiths closer together, to understand what they have in common and how we might draw on their ethical, spiritual, and theological insights to develop an active agenda for change in the international community’s economic and development policies, so as to better promote global peace, justice, and human well-being across the globe.

The Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative commenced its mission with an international conference held in 2002 in Oxford, UK. Subsequent years saw the annual conference and the GCGI community grow as it moved across the continents through Russia, Dubai, Kenya, and Hawaii. The Sixth Annual Conference took place in 2007. It took as its theme non-violent conflict resolution and peace building as being particularly appropriate for the setting of Istanbul, traditional gateway between east and west.

The papers from the conference presented in this volume, while all addressing vital issues of inter-religious and intercultural relations as they affect global politics today, cover a startlingly wide range of topics—law, human rights, media, philosophy, psychology, counter-terror policies, traditions of non-violent resistance, international aid and development, business ethics, information technology, as well as studies of specific situations of global political interest.

The papers, however, are united in the conviction that policy-making and strategic decisions informed by a stronger interreligious understanding can make something positive of religious differences by drawing on the insights of the world’s religions to help build a more humane society.