In 2025, the international community faces severe geopolitical instability, marked by escalating U.S.-China strategic competition, ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East, and heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait. Meanwhile, the intensifying climate crisis casts uncertainty over the future of international cooperation to address it. Furthermore, while rapid advancements in science and technology spark hopes for a transformative future, they also raise concerns about technological hegemony.

The international community is grappling with multidimensional and complex challenges that cannot be resolved using traditional approaches. There is a broad consensus that innovation is necessary to address these issues and achieve peace and shared prosperity. Against this backdrop, the theme of the 2025 Jeju Forum is "Harnessing Innovation for Peace and Shared Prosperity."

This theme provides a framework for overcoming the current and anticipated challenges facing the world. Harnessing Innovation highlights the need for creative solutions in diverse areas: peace cooperation to end wars and maintain stability, economic collaboration for global prosperity, joint action to combat the climate crisis, partnerships in advanced science and technology for a better future, and the engagement of younger generations for a sustainable tomorrow.

Peace and Shared Prosperity represent the ultimate goals to be achieved through such innovation. These values align closely with the core spirit of the Jeju Forum, as encapsulated in its full name, the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity. Notably, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of Jeju Island’s designation as an Island of World Peace, as well as the 20th iteration of the Jeju Forum. In this meaningful year, the Jeju Forum seeks to harness innovative wisdom to tackle the multifaceted and layered challenges facing the global community and, ultimately, to foster peace and shared prosperity.