litical terms in which the subject is commonly discussed. It concluded:

The experience of the Baha'i community may be seen as an example of this
enlarging unity [of humankind].... If the Baha'i experience can contribute
in whatever measure to reinforcing hope in the unity of the human race, we
are happy to offer it as a model for study.

While the immediate purpose of the release was to provide Baha'i
institutions and individual believers with a coherent line of discussion
for their interactions with government authorities, organizations of civil
society, the media and influential personalities, a collateral effect was
to set in motion an intensive and ongoing education of the Baha'i
community itself in several important Baha'i teachings. The influence of
the ideas and perspectives in the document was soon making itself widely
felt in conventions, publications, summer and winter schools, and the
general discourse of believers everywhere.

In many respects, _The Promise of World Peace _may be said to have set the
agenda for Baha'i interaction with the United Nations and its attendant
organizations in the years since 1985. Building on the reputation it had
already won, the Baha'i International Community became, in only a few
short years, one of the most influential of the non-governmental
organizations. Because it is, and is seen to be, entirely non-partisan, it
has increasingly been trusted as a mediating voice in complex, and often
stressful, discussions in international circles on major issues of social
progress. This reputation has been strengthened by appreciation of the
fact that the Community refrains, on principle, from taking advantage of
such trust to press partisan agendas of its own. By 1968, a Baha'i
representative had been elected to membership on the Executive Committee
of Non-Governmental Organizations affiliated with the Office of Public
Information, subsequently holding the positions of chairman and
vice-chairman. From this point on, representatives of the Community found
themselves increasingly asked to function as convenors or chairpersons of
a wide range of bodies: committees, task forces, working groups and
advisory boards. During the past four years, the Community has served as
executive secretary of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations,
the central coordinating body of non-governmental groups affiliated with
the United Nations.

The structure of the Baha'i International Community ref