Positive Peace creates the optimum environment for human potential to flourish.
Defined as the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies, the factors of Positive Peace also lead to many other positive outcomes which society feels are important. Therefore Positive Peace is described as creating the optimum environment for human potential to flourish. Positive Peace has been empirically derived by the Institute for Economics & Peace via the statistical analysis of thousands of cross-country measures of economic and social progress to determine what factors have a statistically significant association with Negative Peace.
Positive Peace is measured by the Positive Peace Index (PPI) which consists of eight domains, each containing three indicators, totalling 24. This provides a baseline measure of the effectiveness of a country’s capabilities to build and maintain peace. It also provides a measure for policymakers, researchers and corporations to use for effective monitoring and evaluation.
Positive Peace can be used as the basis for empirically measuring a country’s resilience, or ability to absorb and recover from shocks. It can also be used to measure fragility and to help predict the likelihood of conflict, violence and instability.
IEP’s framework for Positive Peace is based on eight factors. The Positive Peace pillars not only sustain peace but also support an environment where human potential flourishes. They interact in complex ways, are multidimensional and are generally slow moving.
Positive Peace and UN Peacekeeping
Positive peace has been used as a cornerstone for national peacekeeping mission mandates in four main areas:
Military and security (creation of security zones, transformation of cultural violence);
Political and Constitutional (preparations of elections, consolidation of good governance);
Economic, Social and Psycho-Social (long-term macroeconomic policies, local sustainable development);
International Integration ( integration in regional networks).
The multidimensional peacekeeping mission in Mozambique in 1992 under Security Council Resolution 797 was largely inspired by Galtung’s theory of positive peace transformation. This mission established that “if the United Nations Peacekeeping follows the positive peace elements, it is able to create solid growth conditions for those countries recovering from very serious conflicts”.