The World Peace Foundation emerged in 1910 as a direct response to massive financial investments poured into war. Edwin Ginn, a wealthy publisher, provided the initial funding that allowed this new entity to take shape.
Alex de Waal assumed the directorship in 2011, marking a significant shift in leadership for the organization. This change coincided with the foundation moving its physical location to The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
The World Peace Foundation moved its physical location to The Fletcher School at Tufts University in 2011 after operating under the Harvard Kennedy School for the first decade of the twenty-first century. Philip S. Khoury chaired the board of directors during 2012 while the institution maintained its core mission established decades earlier.
Philip S. Khoury described the group as the oldest secular peace foundation operating within the United States with original objectives focused on educating people about the waste and destructiveness of war. The mission included highlighting how preparation for war negatively affects present social conditions and aimed to protect the wellbeing of future generations from these destructive forces.
The World Peace Foundation founded the journal International Organization in 1947 which became recognized as the leading journal in the field of International Relations. This quarterly publication served as a key resource for scholars studying global affairs alongside Documents of International Organizations: A Selected Bibliography.