The Positive Peace Report showcases the findings of the Institute for Economics and Peace’ research, including its latest results on Positive Peace and systems thinking.

Positive Peace is defined as the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies. It is conceptually and empirically related to many constructive aspects of social development and can be used in multiple contexts. It can also be used to compile an index – the Positive Peace Index (PPI). This allows for the comparison and tracking of the factors that create flourishing societies. These and other concepts related to Positive Peace are covered in the first section of this report, as well as general PPI results, including rankings and changes over time.

Positive Peace is closely associated with system concepts to the extent that it is difficult to separate the two. IEP has further deepened its unique understanding of how societal systems function and has developed a framework called Halo which provides a comprehensive approach to analysing societal systems.

The same factors that create lasting peace also lead to many other positive outcomes to which societies aspire. For example, countries with higher levels of Positive Peace:

• are more resilient,
• are associated with robust and thriving economies,
• have better performance on ecological measures,
• higher levels of wellbeing and happiness,
• stronger measures of social cohesion,
• greater satisfaction with living standards and more.

All these qualities are systemically linked and are a byproduct of the quality of the system. Such societies are less encumbered by the costs and wastage of violence or political instability, have higher productivity, better access to information and are not heavily weighed down by corruption or ineffective governments, to name some. As a result, Positive Peace can be described as creating an optimal environment for human potential to flourish.