What We Do
The Global Peace Index
The Global Peace Index (GPI), the first ever study to rank the nations of the world by their peacefulness and to identify potential drivers of peace, is a core asset of the Institute.
The GPI is a ground-breaking milestone in the study of peace. Now in its fourth year, the Index ranks 149 nations according to their ‘absence of violence’. The GPI is composed of qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, which combine factors internal to a country and external to it.
The major challenges facing humanity today are global – climate change, lack of fresh water, ever-decreasing bio-diversity and overpopulation. These challenges are now well documented and supported by thousands of scientists, academics and leading institutions. It is impossible to accurately portray the devastating effects that these problems will have on all nations, unless unified global action is taken.
Global challenges call for global solutions and these solutions will require cooperation on a global scale unparalleled in human history. Peace is the essential prerequisite because without peace we will be unable to achieve the levels of cooperation, inclusiveness and social equity necessary to solve these problems, let alone empower the international institutions needed to regulate the challenges.
The Global Peace Index is intended to contribute significantly to the public debate on peace.
The notion of peace and its value are poorly understood. There are competing definitions of peace, and most research into peace is, in fact, the study of violent conflict. Peace is not a subject of study that is considered essential in Economics, History, Literature, Political Sciences or International Relations.
The project’s ambition is to go beyond a crude measure of wars and systematically explore the texture of peace. The hope is that a quantitative measure of peacefulness, comparable over time, will allow for a greater understanding of the mechanisms that nurture and sustain peace. This in turn will provide a new platform for further study and discussion, which will inspire and influence world leaders and governments to further action.