The American Forum for Global Education was a private non-profit organization that operated from 1986 to 2008. Its mission was to promote "the education of our nation's youth for responsible citizenship in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world," and to provide leadership and assistance in shaping American educational systems and practices. Moreover, the American Forum for Global Education promoted cultural appreciation, sustainable development and critical and systemic analysis of global issues.

The organization's foundations trace back to 1966, when Robert Wallace Gilmore and several colleagues started the Center for War/Peace Studies of the New York Friends Group. Gilmore was a Quaker, a pioneer of global education in the United States, and an activist involved in civil rights and peace groups such as the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), the Committee for Non-Violent Action, the International Confederation for Peace and Disarmament, and the Committee for a Political Settlement in Vietnam. Originally organized due to a perceived absence of substantive discourse surrounding the Vietnam War, the goal of the Center for War/Peace Studies was to create citizens capable of thinking critically about global issues by providing global education at every school level.

The Center for War/Peace Studies undertook a number of educational publications and projects, including the publication of the global education resource guide series, Intercom, and the establishment of the Center for Global Perspectives as the umbrella organization for the Center's school programming. During the reorganization of the Center for War/Peace Studies in 1976, Global Perspectives in Education was incorporated and took over the Center for Global Perspectives, including publishing responsibility for Intercom. In 1986, Global Perspectives in Education, Inc., merged with the National Council on Foreign Language to form the American Forum for Global Education.

The American Forum for Global Education helped schools, school districts and state departments of education upgrade their programs and curriculums to confront challenges and opportunities of globalization. In addition, it published a myriad of global education curriculum resources, provided professional development programs for educators, and created a clearinghouse "for information and materials for global education that offered educators and the general public curriculum material and other resources at no cost via the internet."

Andrew F. Smith was employed by the American Forum for Global Education and its predecessor organizations from 1978 to 2005, including serving as president of the organization from 1981 until it closed in 2008.