INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Interview: Steve Killelea, Creator of the Global Peace Index In this abridged interview for the Faces of Peace initiative, Institute for Economics and Peace founder Steve Killelea notes deteriorating international security, the amplifying effect of climate change, and three trouble spots.
Stephen Killelea AM is an Australian IT entrepreneur and founder of global think tank the Institute for Economics and Peace.
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) issues the “Global Peace Index” (GPI) annually, which scores 163 nations according to their levels of peacefulness. Aotearoa New Zealand was ranked 2nd overall in the 2021 GPI, and out-peaced only by Iceland. The overall GPI score for 2021 indicates that the global situation – as a result of COVID-19 and other factors – has deteriorated, which is consistent with New Zealand’s own assessment expressed in Defence Assessment 2021. But will this trend continue? “The changing economic conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations”, said Australian philanthropist and IEP founder, Steve Killelea, during an interview with Sven Lilienström, founder of the Faces of Peace Initiative. SL: The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2021 registers - as is has for most previous years - a deterioration in global peacefulness. What is the reason for this? What role will climate change play in future? SK: Measuring peace is contextually rich; in some areas peace is improving, and in others it is deteriorating. This is also true for countries and regions.
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Over the last 10 years, peace has deteriorated by 2.4 percent; however, in that time, 86 countries have improved, while 75 have deteriorated. This highlights that when countries fall in peace, they fall at a faster pace than they improve. Peace is built up gradually over time. The Global Peace Index can be divided into three domains. Two have deteriorated over the decade, namely “Safety” and “Security”, which measure the internal state of peace, and “Ongoing Conf lict”. The other domain, “Militarisation”, has improved, but as can be seen from rising tensions in Indo-China and NATO relations with Russia, this trend is reversing. At an indicator level, “Violent Demonstrations” has deteriorated over the ten years, along with “Number of Refugees”. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the level of conflict and violence in the world in 2020, with some of these effects likely to last for years to come. There were over 5,000 pandemicrelated incidents between January 2020 and April 2021 that involved some form of violence, ranging from violent demonstrations and riots in response to lockdown measures, to physical assaults targeted at people of Asian descent. Line of Defence
