George Mason University Korea launched the Peace and Conflict Studies Center Asia and hosted an annual symposium on peace on the Korean Peninsula at its Incheon Global Campus, the university said Thursday.

Sponsored by the UniKorea Foundation, the Incheon Free Economic Zone and the Korea Association of Military Studies, the annual international symposium brought together some 200 scholars, experts and government officials.

Titled “The Korean Peninsula and the Vision of Peace: From Division to Coexistence,” the event addressed pre- and post-conflict and peace-building strategies for the two Koreas, as well as steps toward coexistence and integration before possible reunification.

The opening ceremony for the center was also part of the symposium.

With a focus on conflict analysis and peace studies in East Asia, the institute aims to be a center for research, education and practice by bringing together the skills and talents of leading and emerging scholars from universities based in Korea as well as from overseas, the school said.

“Like our highly successful conflict analysis and resolution program, which is ranked No. 1 in the United States, the purpose of bringing both the conflict program and opening the center here in Korea today was to create a bridge for theory, research and practice on a variety of social and global issues including conflict and peace in the Asian context and beyond,” Roland Wilson, co-director of the new peace studies center and program coordinator for the university’s conflict analysis and resolution program, said at the ceremony.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)