September Newsletter: Making Peace Profitable, Geneva Peace Week, What’s Changed Since 2008?

Economics & peace

As well as causing high levels of human suffering, violent conflict carries with it a substantial global financial impact. Peaceful societies allow for strong financial growth, while peace itself can act as a good predictor of a country’s future performance. This month, find out just why peace is a good predictor of economic success, get the numbers behind the global economic impact of violence, and view ten years of peace data.

Geneva Peace Week: New measurements for inclusive peacebuilding. Join the Institute for Economics and Peace, UNESCO, and Interpeace for a discussion about achieving peacebuilding goals. Register now to join the discussion on Friday 9 November, 2018.

Peace: a good predictor of economic success. In this new report, we analyse the relationship between the economic performance of a country and its levels of peace. The major finding of this Business & Peace report is that peace acts as a good predictor of a country’s future performance in a number of macroeconomic indicators.

Making peace profitable: IEP’s Steve Killelea joined Dr Henk-Jan Brinkman, Frank Heemskerk and H.E Lamberto Zannier for a panel discussion as part of the Carnegie Peacebuilding Conversations held in the The Hague. The esteemed panel discussed how peace can be made profitable, and sustainable paths to investing in a more peaceful world.

Economic cost of violence

The economic cost of violence to the global economy was $14.76 trillion in 2017. This is equivalent to 12.4% of world GDP, or $1,988 for each and every person on the planet. To put that in context, just a 1% reduction in the economic cost of violence would be the equivalent of the total global Official Development Assistance in 2017. A larger 10% reduction in the economic cost of violence would be the equivalent of the total economies of Switzerland, Belgium and Denmark. Peace is good for the economy.

The economic impact of violence increased by 2.1% from 2016 to 2017, mainly due to a rise in internal security expenditure. The economic impact of violence has increased by 16% since 2012, corresponding with the start of the Syrian war and rising violence in the aftermath of the Arab uprising in Libya, Yemen and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa. The economic impact of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq also increased between 2012 and 2017, due to the rise of ISIL and its global affiliates.

$14.76 trillion: Global economic impact of violence in 2017
37.2%: At 37.2%, military expenditure forms the largest component of the global economic cost of violence
16%: Increase of the economic cost of violence since 2012
15x: Per capita violence containment spending is 15 times higher
in MENA than Sub-Saharan Africa
12.4%: Economic cost of violence as a percentage of world GDP

Further reading

The Ugandan literacy project transforming lives. “Before this workshop, I felt that building Positive Peace in the community could only be done by the government and its bodies. However, my attitude about building peace was changed after each Positive Peace workshop session that I attended.”

How do you build peace? What is peacebuilding? Academics, strategists and practitioners continue to develop and grow this evolving field. The verb, ‘to build’, suggests a construction. Construction is generally very linear, starting with a plan based on needs and context.

Understanding the transition from conflict to lasting peace. Policymakers and governments have long considered the question of how societies transition from one state of peace to another. Why do some countries emerge from conflicts into peaceful societies while others continue to exist in a highly fragile state?

Preventing a state collapse in the Pacific: 15 years later. Australia’s little known other “intervention” of 2003 surprisingly wasn’t in the Middle East with the world’s eyes watching, but an effort to prevent a state collapse closer to home.

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