The Baha'i Chair for World Peace was established in 1993 at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, College Park, under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.

The mission of the Baha'i Chair for World Peace is to develop alternatives to the violent resolution of conflict management, global education, international development, spiritual awareness, and world trade; to share the experience of the Baha'i world community in building a global society; and to offer the community as a model for study.

To this end the Chair engages in a wide range of activities. It conducts and publishes research, designs and teaches courses, and organizes seminars and international conferences. All its undertakings are intended to promote an awareness of the factors that create conflicts within and between nations and assist in the search for peaceful solutions to resolve them. Its work assumes that all legitimate forms of human expression, including literature, poetry, music, and art, have a role to play in producing understandings that lead to peace.