Ambassador Program Information

Welcome to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s (IEP) Ambassador Program! In this module,
you will find information relating to the course structure and content, as well as resources and
templates relating to the assessment component of this course. Here is an outline of what you can
expect to cover.

Module 1

In this module, you will be welcomed to the IEP Ambassador Program where we will cover the
following:

 An introduction to IEP’s Founder and Executive Chairman, Steve Killelea

 An introduction to IEP– who we are and what we do
 An overview of the entire program
 The key findings and highlights from our main research reports:
o The Global Peace Index (GPI)
o The Ecological Threat Register (ETR)
o The Global Terrorism Index (GTI)

To Do

 Watch videos and read material

 Complete multiple choice quiz

Module 2

In this module, you will be introduced to Positive Peace and systems thinking. Content will
include the following:

 The Positive Peace Index (PPI) and key findings

 The Positive Peace Framework
 The Pillars of Positive Peace
 Systems Thinking

To Do

 Watch videos and read material

 Complete multiple choice quiz

Module 3

In this module, you will guided through the practical application of Positive Peace, including:

 How to develop a Positive Peace Project

  How to develop a presentation
 What is a Positive Peace workshop?
 Some examples/presentations/projects presented by previous IEP Ambassadors

To Do

 Watch videos
 Download resources

IEP Ambassador Program Survey

Please complete our survey to share your feedback about the Ambassador Program to help IEP
assess how we may best make improvements.

To Do

 Survey

Final Submission

The final component of the Ambassador Program is to demonstrate your knowledge and
understandings of the course content. To be successful as an IEP Ambassador, you will be
required to do a presentation or project that is related to IEP’s research or the Positive Peace
framework, all of which will be covered in modules 1 and 2. Please submit details of your
presentation or project here.

To Do

 Submit project/presentation

Introduction to IEP's Ambassador Program

& Research Reports
Welcome to Module 1 of the IEP Ambassador Program! In this module, you will be
introduced to the Institute of Economics of Peace, who we are and what we do. You will then get
to explore the highlights and key findings of our main reports, the Global Peace Index, The
Ecological Threat Report and the Global Terrorism Index.

Institute for Economics and Peace

The Institute for Economics and Peace is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank
dedicated to building a greater understanding of the key drivers of peace, as well as identifying
the economic benefits that increased peacefulness can deliver.
IEP aims to create a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace. We do this by
developing global and national indices, calculating the economic cost of violence, analysing
country-level risk and fragility, and understanding Positive Peace.

Our research is used extensively by governments, academic institutions, think tanks,

non-governmental organisations and by intergovernmental institutions such as the OECD, The
Commonwealth Secretariat, the World Bank and the United Nations. The Institute is
headquartered in Sydney with offices in 6 countries, and our research achieves over 20 billion
media impressions across 150 countries each year.

Global Peace Index

Global Peace Index

This is the 16th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and
territories according to their level of peacefulness, and is the world’s leading measure of global
peacefulness. The report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to-date on trends
in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.

This year’s results found that the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3 per
cent. Although slight, this is the eleventh deterioration in peacefulness in the last fourteen years,
with 90 countries improving, 71 deteriorating and two remaining stable in peacefulness,
highlighting that countries tend to deteriorate much faster than they improve.

2022 Key Highlights:

 The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.3 per cent in the 2022 Global
Peace Index. Although small, this deterioration continues a long-standing trend, with the
GPI deteriorating in eleven of the past 14 years.
 The largest deteriorations were recorded in the political terror scale, neighbouring
country relations, intensity of internal conflict, number of refugees and IDPs and political
instability.
 Since 2008, the level of global peacefulness has deteriorated by 3.2 per cent, with 84
countries deteriorating and 77 improving in the GPI. The world has become successively
less peaceful each year since 2014.
 The gap between the least and the most peaceful countries continues to grow. Since 2008,
the 25 least peaceful countries deteriorated on average by 16 per cent, while the 25 most
peaceful countries improved by 5.1 per cent.
 The global economic impact of violence was $16.5 trillion in 2021, equivalent to 10.9 per
cent of global GDP, or $2,117 per person.

Ecological Threat Report

The Ecological Threat Register analyses ecological threats from 228 independent states and
territories, assessing threats related to food risk, water risk, rapid population growth and natural
disasters.

Key Findings:

 The world’s 40 least peaceful countries will increase their population by 1.3 billion by
2050, representing 49% of the world’s population.
 They also have the worst ecological threats.
 750 million suffering from undernourishment and will only get worse.
 Since 2019, the world’s concern over climate change has decreased by 1.5%. Citizens in
three of the four biggest emitters have a low level of concern – China, India, and Russia.
 The world’s fastest growing megacities are the lest capable of managing growth.
 Countries with high societal resilience are likely to meet their ecological challenges
 Sub Saharan Africa is facing the biggest challenges with all bar one country facing severe
water stress

Global Terrorism Index

Global Terrorism Index

This is the tenth edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). This report provides a
comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last decade.
The calculation of the GTI score considers not only deaths but also incidents, hostages and
injuries from terrorism, weighted over a five-year period.

The GTI report is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) using data from
TerrorismTracker and other sources. TerrorismTracker provides event records on terrorist attacks
since 1 January 2007. The dataset contains almost 66,000 terrorist incidents for the period 2007
to 2022. In 2022, deaths from terrorism fell by nine per cent to 6,701 deaths and is now 38 per
cent lower than at its peak in 2015. The fall in deaths was mirrored by a reduction in the number
of incidents, with attacks declining by almost 28 per cent from 5,463 in 2021 to 3,955 in 2022.
However, if Afghanistan was removed from the index, terrorism deaths would have increased by
four per cent.

2023 Key Findings:

 Deaths from terrorism fell to 6,701 in 2022, representing a nine per cent decrease from
the prior year. If Afghanistan was omitted, then terrorism deaths would have increased by
four per cent in 2022.
 Terrorist attacks have become more deadly, killing on average 26 per cent more people
per attack. The death rate rose to 1.7 people per attack in 2022, compared to 1.3 deaths
per attack in 2021. This is the first increase in the lethality rate in five years.
 Deaths from terrorism have fallen by over a third since its peak in 2015, with two of the
largest decreases occurring in Iraq and Nigeria.
  In 2022, the 15 countries most impacted by terrorism were all suffering from conflict
 The MENA region has seen a substantial decrease in terrorism over the past six years,
with the proportion of global terrorism deaths in the region dropping from 57 per cent in
2016 to just 12 per cent in 2022.
 The Sahel has become increasingly more violent over the past 16 years, with terrorism
deaths rising by over 2,000 per cent between 2007 and 2022. This increase in violence
shows no sign of abating.
 The underlying drivers are complex and systemic including weak governance, ethnic
polarisation, ecological insecurity, abuses by state security, pastoral conflict, the growth
of transnational SalafiIslam ideology, political instability, transnational crime, food
insecurity and geopolitical competition.

Introduction
In Module 2 of the IEP Ambassador Program, Director of Partnerships Charlie Allen will explain
Positive Peace and Systems Thinking, as well as provide information on the Positive Peace
Index. These will provide the theoretical backing for your Positive Peace Project.

Positive Peace
Positive Peace Index

The global score for the PPI has improved by 2.4 per cent since 2009, with 126 countries
improving in Positive Peace, 36 countries deteriorating and one country score being little
changed. The score is calculated by taking the average country score for the 163 countries
included in the index. Changes in Positive Peace generally occur slowly and may take many
years for the benefits to show because institution building and changes in social norms are long-
term processes. As such, global changes in the PPI Pillars happen relatively slowly, and even
slight changes in global Positive Peace can be considered important. Positive Peace has
improved almost continuously since 2009, largely on the back of greater technological and
economic development. All geographical regions of the world recorded improvements in their
PPI scores since 2009, except North America. The largest improvements occurred in Asia-
Pacific, Russia and Eurasia, and South Asia, improving respectively by 6.4 per cent, 6.1 per cent
and 4.2 per cent respectively. The improvement in South Asia was mainly driven by
improvements in Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The improvement in the Middle-East and North Africa
was marginal.

Overall, 15 of the 20 countries that comprise this region improved in Positive Peace over the
period. However, the deteriorations recorded by Libya, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan were
numerically large and almost offset the PPI gains elsewhere in the region. The only region in the
world to record a deterioration in its PPI score from 2009 to 2020 was North America. At nine
per cent over the period, the overall deterioration in the North American score was the sharpest
movement of any region. However, this region consists only of two countries – Canada and the
US – and as such, a greater variability in the average regional score is to be expected.
2022 Key Findings

 Positive Peace improved 2.4 per cent globally in the past decade.
 This improvement was mainly driven by the Structures domain of Positive Peace, which Key
Findings improved by 8 per cent since 2009.
 Seven of the eight Pillars of Positive Peace improved since 2009, although the improvements in
High Levels of Human Capital and Well-Functioning Government were minimal.
 Low Levels of Corruption was the only Pillar to deteriorate. This was either a reflection of greater
corruption or an increase in awareness of it around the world.
 Almost all regions of the globe recorded improvements in Positive Peace over the past decade,
with the Middle East and North Africa improving only marginally. The only region to record a
deterioration was North America.
 The largest country improvements in the PPI over the decade were recorded for Uzbekistan,
Georgia, Armenia, Côte d’Ivoire and Kazakhstan. The steepest deteriorations were in Syria,
Libya, Venezuela, Yemen and South Sudan.

Positive Peace Framework

Positive Peace is defined as the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain
peaceful societies. These same factors also lead to many other positive outcomes that society
feels are important. Higher levels of Positive Peace are statistically linked to higher GDP growth,
better environmental outcomes, higher measures of wellbeing, better developmental outcomes
and stronger resilience.

Positive Peace has been empirically derived by IEP through the analysis of thousands of cross
country measures of economic and social progress to determine which have statistically
significant relationships with actual peace as measured by the Global Peace Index (GPI).

Positive Peace is measured by the Positive Peace Index (PPI), which consists of eight Pillars,
each containing three indicators. 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 intervention design, monitoring and evaluation.

Positive Peace can be used as the basis for empirically measuring a country’s resilience — its
ability to absorb, adapt and recover from shocks, such as climate change or economic
transformation. It can also be used to measure fragility and help predict the likelihood of conflict,
violence and instability.

The Pillars of Positive Peace

A visual representation of the factors comprising Positive Peace. All eight factors are highly
interconnected and interact in varied and complex ways.
Systems Thinking
Systems theory first originated while attempting to better understand the workings of biological
systems and organisms, such as cells or the human body. Through such studies, it became clear
that understanding the individual parts of a system was inadequate to describe a system as a
whole, as systems are much more than the sum of their parts. Applying systems thinking to the
nation state allows us to better understand how societies work, how to better manage the
challenges they face and how to improve overall wellbeing. This approach offers alternatives to
the traditional understanding of change.

The Properties of Systems Thinking

There are four major properties associated with systems thinking:

 The system is a whole. It cannot be reduced to its parts as individually the parts will have a
different pattern of behaviour.
 The system is self-regulating. It aims to maintain a steady state by stabilising itself through
feedback loops. The system adjusts to create balance between inputs, outputs and internally coded
requirements so as to maintain what is termed homeostasis.
 The system is self-modifying. When there is a persistent mismatch between inputs and its intent,
the system searches for a new pattern by which it can function. This creates differentiation from
the original system and increases complexity.
 The system does not stand on its own. It is part of a larger system but also contains its own sub-
systems. It also interacts with other similar systems. This ‘system of systems’ adapts together.

For further insight into Positive Peace, watch this video of IEP Founder Steve Killilea presenting
at the 2017 Positive Peace Conference at the Stanley Humanities Center of Stanford University.

Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking
Systems theory first originated while attempting to better understand the workings of biological
systems and organisms, such as cells or the human body. Through such studies, it became clear
that understanding the individual parts of a system was inadequate to describe a system as a
whole, as systems are much more than the sum of their parts. Applying systems thinking to the
nation state allows us to better understand how societies work, how to better manage the
challenges they face and how to improve overall wellbeing. This approach offers alternatives to
the traditional understanding of change.

The Properties of Systems Thinking

There are four major properties associated with systems thinking:

 The system is a whole. It cannot be reduced to its parts as individually the parts will have a
different pattern of behaviour.
 The system is self-regulating. It aims to maintain a steady state by stabilising itself through
feedback loops. The system adjusts to create balance between inputs, outputs and internally coded
requirements so as to maintain what is termed homeostasis.
 The system is self-modifying. When there is a persistent mismatch between inputs and its intent,
the system searches for a new pattern by which it can function. This creates differentiation from
the original system and increases complexity.
 The system does not stand on its own. It is part of a larger system but also contains its own sub-
systems. It also interacts with other similar systems. This ‘system of systems’ adapts together.

For further insight into Peace and Systems Thinking, please follow this link to our website
Vision of Humanity to read an excerpt from IEP Founder Steve Killilea’s book, ‘Peace in the
Age of Chaos’.

Conclusion
Thank you for your participation in Module 2 of IEP’s Ambassador Program!

In the next module, we will discuss the Project/Presentation design and implementation, as well
as hear from previous Ambassadors on their Projects and any tips and tricks they may have for
you.

Please remember to complete the quiz at the end of this section, and feel free to take it as many
times as it takes to get it right.

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing you in the next module!

Introduction
Welcome to the final section of the IEP Ambassador Program.

To be successful as an IEP Ambassador, you are required to demonstrate your knowledge and
understanding of IEP’s research and/or the Positive Peace framework. This can be done by:
 Undertaking a Positive Peace project. This requires you to implement a project in your
community that builds Positive Peace through the activation of the pillars.
 Completing a presentation to your chosen audience. The presentation must incorporate
elements of IEP’s research and/or Positive Peace.
 Running a training session or workshop that incorporates IEP’s research and/or Positive
Peace.