As war keeps on changing, even the concept of peace is evolving. Peace today has not one, but two distinct definitions: Negative Peace Positive Peace Negative Peace is the absence of violence and it fails to capture a society’s stability and harmony. Positive Peace, on the other hand, is defined as “the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies”, and it is achieved through sustainable investments in economic development and institutions as well as societal attitudes that foster peace. Positive Peace a ‘transformational concept’ as it does not focus on the negative conditions to avoid peace, but instead it
Category: Positive Peace
Positive Peace, what is it?
Peace has been a condition of survival for humans throughout time. In times of war, it is not possible to achieve the levels of cooperation for countries to solve challenges, and live in a safe and harmonious environment. According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, we need an understanding of the conditions that create and sustain peaceful societies, otherwise, it will not be possible to develop policies or understand the resources required to build peaceful societies. The reality is that many countries in the 21st century that find themselves in war do so because of external interference motivated by
What’s the difference between Iceland and Afghanistan?
Many differences can be drawn between the two states of Iceland and Afghanistan. Iceland, a largely Christian island has a population of 366 Thousand. It’s known for its northern lights, volcanos and hot springs. Afghanistan on the other hand, is landlocked, with a population of 38.93 Million and famous for its beautiful mountains, pomegranates and regrettably, war. According to the Institute for Economics & Peace’s Global Peace Index, Iceland ranks as the most peaceful country in the world, and Afghanistan the least. The Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Institute which measures the relative position of nations’ and
Characterising the Notion of Positive Peace
Just as ‘peace education’ was born in the 1920s as a reaction to the destruction and death caused during the First World War, in turn ‘peace research’ emerged in the 1950s as a response to the consequences of World War II. It seems that the horror of the greatest genocide in history, and the death and desolation caused by the atomic bomb, had to come before humanity desperately sought a definitive solution to the recurring problem of the violence of war. The first investigations appeared in the United States with the publication of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (1957) and
An overview of global peace and unrest during the Covid-19 pandemic
The 15th edition of the annual Global Peace Index report, the world’s leading measure of this study, revealed that in 2021 the average level of world peace deteriorated for the ninth time in 13 years. In total, 86 countries improved their peace in the report, while 75 deteriorated. Rising civil unrest was identified as an emerging risk factor, with riots, general strikes and anti-government demonstrations escalating substantially since 2011. On top of this COVID-19 research provides an insight of a world that faces higher risks in most GPI measures, due to the emerging economic crisis, which is projected to be the
Young People’s Response to the Peace Index 2022
In the last blog posts, we introduced the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)’s Positive Peace Report 2022. Our work at IDare is founded on the belief that when young women and men have their potential for transformation activated, they become a critical factor not only in changing their own world but in global stability now and into the future. Therefore, this week we are taking a closer look at one of the Positive Peace Report’s indicators of Positive Peace, namely: Life Satisfaction. Specifically looking at satisfaction by age and gender. Life Satisfaction The IEP rely upon 24 indicators which
Most and least peaceful countries of the world
“The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.07 per cent in the 2021 Global Peace Index. Although a relatively small deterioration, this is the ninth time in the last 13 years that global peacefulness has deteriorated.” In this article, we will summarize the data reported in the 15th edition of the Global Peace Index report (GPI) drafted by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). The aim of the GPI is to highlight the improvements and the deteriorations in peacefulness, ranking 163 independent states and territories. They used 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from reliable sources, and the state of
Global peace index: best and worst scores
What makes a country peaceful? What threatens its peacefulness? After last week’s insight on the Global Peace Index and how it works, this week we will examine the countries with the highest and lowest scores and the reasons behind such numbers. For the thirteenth year in a row, Iceland remains in first position, representing a model to look up to for everyone. It obtained a general score of 1.1, with scores below 2 for each one of the 23 indicators. For example, it scores 1 in Militarisation, as it does not have a standing army: not even members of the police