"The global society" was the vision of the Association for World Educaton when it was first established in 1970. Since then the concept global has been a keyword in our trying to understand the world today.

The word global is connected to the word local. The global and the local are mutually deeply connected which is expressed in the slogans: "Think global - act local!" and "Act global - think local".

Today, the global and the local are interconnected and interdependent in ways that humanity has not experienced before. Today, the many different local communities around the world share a common destiny. Today, humanity is a geo-ecological entirety within the same biosphere.

The word global is also connected to a concept of one earth, one world, one planet. We live on a globe which has limits. This way of understanding the world is completely new.

This understanding will, in time, place the globe in a new form of togetherness. It will not extinguish the conflict between rich and poor but define it in a new way based on the global limit as a common denominator.

The Association for World Education is an international, non-governmental, voluntary organisation of individuals and institutions who believe that learning about ourselves and our communities is most effective and satisfying when education reflects an awareness of our intimate relationship to the world as a whole.

• to promote intercommunication and interaction among individuals and institutions which are working to comprehend and to spread awareness of the global aspects of education,
• to facilitate the exchange and the transfer of ideas, knowledge and experience among such individuals and institutions,
• to spotlight those innovations in education and in development which strengthen the linkages between the local and the global,
• to encourage research and leadership training related to world education
• to stress the special contribution of a voluntary, people's organisaion in working towards the above goals.