Who We Are
The INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL SOUTH AND PEACE STUDIES (IESGP) is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing knowledge, research, and education on issues pertaining to the Global South and Peace.
Our mission is to foster objective, interdisciplinary, and independent scientific inquiry that acknowledges the complex historical, economic, political, social, health, and cultural interconnections shaping the Global South.
We believe in the power of knowledge to transform societies and in the essential role of peace-building mechanisms for sustainable development.
Our Philosophy
The IESGP was created based on the assertion that there is no such thing as purely objective knowledge, but rather that knowledge is imbued with subjectivity and the situational position of the subject on our planet. Knowledge of the Global South does not attempt to be totally objective, true, and universal, but rather seeks to produce its own knowledge from a Global South perspective.
The IESGP promotes knowledge about the Global South created by the Global South and from the Global South, in response to and in contrast to the knowledge of the Global North, created by the Global North and from the Global North. This is a complex process that the Global South has not yet undertaken and must do so at some point in the future; a process that requires the effort and work of several generations to dismantle the colonial structures that have not been dismantled with the formal independence of the states of the Global South.
Only through this process will there be a prospect of rebuilding a truly free, democratic, and egalitarian world system for all people on our planet.
The exchange, voluntary and involuntary, of all material and intellectual resources between the Global North and the Global South cannot be reset or erased from international social history, but, in the case of the Global South, it must be rethought or readjusted to the interests and demands of the common and individual good. Decolonization projects are severely limited by centuries of almost total and unquestioned assimilation of the resources of the Global North. Their problems will be the subject of research by the IESGP, among other matters.
The IESGP takes on the task of disseminating and spreading information about the Global South from its own perspective, from within, and seeks to find, discover, and exploit its own free and creative human capital for the benefit of the Global South.
The IESGP is an emissary of peace. It is consistent in demanding the rule of peaceful means for the resolution of differences and conflicts, and works towards this at the local, national, and international levels.
Perspective Shift
Promoting knowledge created by and from the Global South, challenging Northern epistemological dominance.
Decolonization Process
Acknowledging the multi-generational work needed to dismantle persistent colonial structures.
Peace as Foundation
Consistently advocating for peaceful conflict resolution at all levels of society.
Key Concepts We Address
Our Purposes
Scientific and Objective Knowledge
To advance scientific and objective knowledge about the Global South and Peace through rigorous, evidence-based research that transcends ideological biases and promotes understanding.
Interdisciplinary Research & Education
To work for objective, interdisciplinary, free, and independent science, research, and education on the Global South and peace, taking into account their historical, economic, political, social, health, and cultural interconnections.
Knowledge Promotion & Internal Cooperation
To promote broad and widespread knowledge about the Global South within the Global South itself and to foster internal cooperation among its nations and peoples.
Culture of Peace
The development of a culture of peace that optimally manages the various peaceful instruments for resolving differences and conflicts, and becomes legal custom in the Global South.
Peaceful Conflict Resolution
The IESGP promotes, applies, and disseminates the use of, among other things, good offices, negotiation, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration as essential tools for peaceful conflict resolution.
Progress & Development
Progress and development of the populations of the Global South, together with the development of their own perspective, revaluation of their contributions, and substantive improvement of their negotiating conditions vis-à-vis the Global North.
Peaceful Instruments We Promote
The IESGP is committed to advancing peaceful conflict resolution through the application and dissemination of various instruments, including: