Artists and celebreties including Woody Allen, the Beastie Boys, Franz Beckenbauer, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Phil Collins, Sarah Ferguson, Milos Forman, Peter Gabriel, Sir Elton John, Sophia Loren, Vanessa-Mae, Sir Paul McCartney, Jessye Norman, Pink Floyd, Roman Polanski, Robert Rauschenberg, Queen and Tom Waits have joined in to support the International Peace Foundation's humanitarian efforts including reconstruction and reconciliation programs between conflicting Serbian, Montenegrian and Albanian groups after the war in Kosovo, the construction of schools in the rural parts of Thailand and of hospitals for people with AIDS in the slums of Bangkok as well as providing education for street children and relief for the victims of the Andaman Tsunami tragedy.

As a major contribution to "The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence" initiated and promoted by the United Nations' General Assembly in the year 2000 Thailand was chosen as the first Asian host country for "Bridges - Dialogues Towards a Culture of Peace" in 2003. Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun became the chief mentor and Thai Chairman of the Advisory Board, followed by former Supreme Commander, Privy Councilor and then Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont; many other leaders and decision makers in all parts of Thai society joined to support the “Bridges” program aimed at

Through lectures, workshops, seminars and artistic events, which were in general open and free of charge for the public, the “Bridges” series, which started in Thailand and will now be continued in the Philippines, has established itself as an international, intercultural and interdisciplinary platform for creative cultures of learning and continued education for all people. The program combines

The success of the “Bridges” program in Thailand was made possible through the participation of 26 Nobel Laureates and 12 other keynote speakers and artists in a series of more than 250 events held in cooperation with 76 Thai and international institutions and reaching an audience of 70,000 participants. Many Nobel Laureates who visited Thailand for their first time now return on a regular basis to cooperate with ministries, universities and schools to continuously enhance the education system, which we believe is the basis for peace.

To help build further bridges for the promotion of a culture of peace among a diversified ASEAN region the politically and religiously independent International Peace Foundation has now been invited to facilitate more platforms for dialogue through another series of events with Nobel Laureates from all fields starting in the Philippines and Thailand in November 2007.

Updated information can be found on this website, and I hope you will join us by sharing your own ideas and visions for a more peaceful tomorrow so that we may listen to and learn from each other and discover that there is not only one way to achieve peace, but that there are many ways, and certainly ways we have never thought of to go. Only if many ways cross and people walking these ways meet, can international understanding be achieved and problems commonly solved.

Thank you for your interest in becoming a part of this process discovering and building “Bridges” through dialogues towards a culture of peace!