The Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations to be held at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. from November 1-3, 2009, will be the first forum to honor peaceful countries around the world. 18 most peaceful nations will gather at the Symposium to celebrate and determine how these peaceful nations were successful in their efforts at promoting peace. As a worldwide initiative, nine major regions were demarcated with two countries from each region being invited to the Symposium. Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, Chile and Uruguay, Malawi and Botswana, Oman and Qatar, Costa Rica and Canada, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Singapore and Vietnam, and Denmark and Norway, were chosen from their respective regions. 

The highlights of the Symposium are live speeches by President and CEO of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center, Harriet Fulbright, and Chic Dambach, President & CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The event starts Sunday night Nov. 1 with a opening ceremony that features an awards ceremony for the countries involved and a recorded video address by President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica. The keynote address is to be presented by the current Administrator of the UN Development Programme Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Delegates will participate in a two-day workshop on Monday, Nov. 2, and Tuesday, Nov. 3, which is aimed at providing an insight into policies and characteristics adopted by the most peaceful nations worldwide. Several world leaders in peacebuilding are expected to attended, which includes Ambassador Hawa Ndilowe of Malawi, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong of Singapore, Ambassador Gary Doer of Canada, Steve Killelea, founder of the GPI, and former U.S Ambassador to the U.N Thomas Pickering, among others. 

The J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center is a promoter of world peace and propagates nonviolence as a means to resolving conflicts through international collaborations such as life-long learning programs, cultural exchanges, and education abroad. 

The Alliance for Peacebuilding is a partnership of various organizations that are dedicated to reducing conflicts through peaceful means. The alliance aims to achieve its goals by initiating action, and building up an awareness for peacebuilding. The Global Peace Index (GPI) was the benchmark for measuring peace in 144 countries and was produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global organization dedicated to research on the relationship between peace, business, and economics.