Research Area
Measuring Peace
Measuring peace at the global and national level allows us to assess the social, political and economic factors that create peace. Each year the Institute for Economics and Peace produces the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading measure of national peacefulness, ranking 163 countries according to their levels of peace. A series of national peace indices have also been developed to explore the fabric of peace at the sub-national level. These include: the Mexico Peace Index and the German Peace Index.
Research Area
Positive Peace
Peace is much more than the absence of violence. Positive Peace describes the attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies. The Institute has developed a conceptual framework, known as the Pillars of Peace, that outlines a system of eight factors that work together to build positive peace. Derived from a statistical analysis of over 4,000 datasets, the Pillars of Peace provides a roadmap to overcome adversity and conflict, and to build lasting peace.
Research Area
Economics of Peace
The Institute has developed an innovative methodology to calculate the economic impact of violence to the economy. It does this by calculating 13 different types of violence related spending at the national level, and applying a multiplier effect to account for the lingering influence of violence and fear. There are immediate and obvious examples of the impact of violence to the economy, like hospital fees, or security costs, and there are also more subtle long term impacts, such as a shift to more defensive spending by individuals, businesses and governments.
Research Area
Understanding Risk
Using data collected since 1996, the Institute has developed a new methodology to identify countries at risk of falling into instability and violence. The risk model allows a deep understanding of the resilience of nations towards internal and external shocks and can be used for forecasting risk and opportunity. Read about the latest risk to countries in the COVID-19 and Peace report.
