About the Matsunaga Institute
The Matsunaga Institute is dedicated to honoring the memory of United States Senator Spark M. Matsunaga and implementing his hope that “every student enrolled in Hawaii’s public university system will be exposed to peace studies.”
Vision and Values
In order to promote cross-cultural communication and peacemaking leadership, the Matsunaga Institute is committed to building on Hawaii’s cultural heritage and island values: aloha, mutual aid and respect, a sense of community, and caring for the land. The goals of the Matsunaga Institute are to:
- Educate and train professional and future leaders in applied peacemaking and conflict resolution.
- Encourage innovative thinking to develop collaborative processes that engage various stakeholders in problem-solving.
- Engage students, through scholarship and practice, in addressing contemporary problems within Hawaiʻi, the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S., and the world.
- Use the strategic Pacific location to bring people together in an intellectually safe space to exchange diverse perspectives and ideas.
“We envision a university, community and world where the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict is our shared enterprise.”
History of the Institute
In 1986, the University of Hawai’i Institute for Peace was established. From the beginning, the Institute was an academic community designed to develop and share knowledge about the root causes of violence, conditions of peace, and uses of nonviolent means for resolving conflicts.
After the passing of Hawai’i Senator Spark M. Matsunaga in 1990, it was proposed that the Institute be renamed in his honor. Senator Matsunaga worked tirelessly over his career to establish the United States Institute for Peace and provided inspirational guidance in developing the University of Hawai’i Institute for Peace curriculum and research priorities. The new name acknowledges Senator Matsunaga’s vision to institutionalize humanity’s concern for world peace, starting at a local level.
In 1996, the Matsunaga Institute merged with the University of Hawaiʻi Program on Conflict Resolution (PCR) to form the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution. PCR’s contributions to the fields of early identification, research, prevention, mediation, facilitation, training services, and peaceful resolution of conflicts significantly enhanced the curriculum of the Matsunaga Institute.
“If we want peace we must educate people to want peace.” – Senator Spark M. Matsunaga
