Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Global Peace Index 2010, a Vision of Humanity

I thought it is appropriate to revisit the GPI 2010 report today, the International Day of Peace.

This is interesting, the 4th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). The results of the GPI for 2010 suggest that "the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year."

Check out the peace indicators used and map of results at the link below.

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/#/2010/scor

And here is a link to the GPI 2010 Discussion Paper. The correlations with economic and societal indicators are interesting, and also the section on the monetary value of peace, and the cumulative effects of peace.

Do these statistics really help understand the factors associated with peace or inform our methods for the future? What is missing?

Here is my favorite part of the Key Findings section:

The economic gains from even modest reductions in violence would easily equal the losses due to the world
economic crisis of 2008/9.

At a peace symposium, the most peaceful 2 countries shared wisdom and lessons... here are a few lines from that section:

A “forward focus” is one of the themes that researchers have seen emerge when looking beyond the concrete characteristics of peace and examined the less quantifiable dynamics that has driven each country’s path to peace. Peaceful countries tend to focus on building their future, rather than righting past wrongs. They also focus on getting their own house in order, rather than intervening in others’ affairs. Regionally and globally, the peaceful countries participate in international governmental organizations to harmonize approaches with their neighbors, but not to impose their ways. These peaceful countries realize they are not perfect, as they see better futures they want to build. Their peace is a process of cooperating to meet common aims, not a static state.


Amineh