What is positive peace?
Peace is more than just the absence of war.
When mankind is in harmony with itself and nature, resources are shared equitably, diversity is respected, and individual rights are honored and upheld, then the world will have a lasting peace. This kind of paradigm shift—from “negative peace”, the absence of conflict, to “positive peace”, creating a culture of peace—is essential to building a peaceful world.
Positive peace actively focuses on fostering the “attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies”, according to the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP).
Simply put, the IEP says, “strong Positive Peace can be seen as creating an optimal environment in which human potential can flourish.”
The IEP lays out eight pillars on which a positive peace is built: well functioning government, equitable distribution of resources, free flow of information, good relations with neighbors, high levels of human capital, acceptance of rights of others, low levels of corruption, and sound business environment.
In turn, the IEP’s research shows that higher levels of positive peace result in many desirable outcomes for societies including strong resilience, better environment outcomes, higher measure of wellbeing, better performance on development goals, and higher per capita income.
Another way to conceptualize positive peace is by using the term “culture of peace”, which has been adopted by the United Nations.
To create a lasting peace that will save future generations from the horrors of war, the United Nations recognized that civil society and the international community must transform itself from being immersed in a culture of violence and war, into a culture of peace.
The United Nations defines a culture of peace as “a set of values, attitudes, traditions and customs, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reflect and are directed towards respect for life, for human beings and their rights, the rejection of violence in all its forms, the recognition of the equal rights of men and women, the recognition of the rights of everyone to freedom of expression, opinion and information, attachment to the principles of democracy, freedom, justice, development for all, tolerance, solidarity, pluralism and acceptance of differences and understanding between nations, between ethnic, religious, cultural and other groups and between individuals.”
Positive peace must be engendered within nations, but also on an international level to tackle global threats, such as climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism, to name a few. Overcoming these massive challenges requires cooperation and trust, which positive peace can help bring about.
Reacting to violence will only stem the bleeding of the world’s many conflicts, like treating the symptoms of an injury or disease. Acting ad hoc against every civil war and international skirmish is not an effective method for fostering peaceful societies. Instead, the international community must focus on preventative care, by addressing and rectifying inequalities, unsustainable development, human rights abuses, and intolerance. At the same time, civil society must build up positive attitudes, fair systems, transparent organizations, and democratic governments that are the foundation for lasting peace.