Executive Summary 2

1 A Decade of Positive Peace 4

  Percentage Change in Positive Peace, 2015–2024 8

  Why Positive Peace is Transformational 14

  Positive Peace Index: Results 16

  Regional Changes in the Past Decade 21

2 Positive Peace and Societal Resilience 26

  Positive Peace and Economic Resilience 28

  Positive Peace and Environmental Resilience 34

  Positive Peace and Societal Wellbeing 36

3 Positive Peace Since COVID-19 46

  Positive Peace Post-Pandemic: Pressures On Information, Institutions, and Trust 48

  Post-Pandemic Risers and Fallers 49

  Five Largest Improvements in Positive Peace (2020–2024) 50

  Five Largest Deteriorations in Positive Peace (2020–2024) 55

4 Positive Peace Trends of Leading Powers 60

  United States 62

  China 64

  Western and Central Europe 65

  Russia 66

  India 67

5 Peace Trajectories: Positive and Negative Peace 68

  How Positive Peace Creates Substantial Improvements in Internal Peace 71

  Case Studies 74

  Positive Peace Deficits and the Risk of Violence 77

  Tipping Points 81

  A Dynamical Systems View of Peace Transitions 83

6 Development Pathways for Mid-Peace Countries 86

  A Constraints-Based View of Mid-Peace Transitions 92

  Case Studies 97

7 The Halo Framework: A Systems-Based Approach to

  Analysing Societies 102

  What is Halo? 103

  Conceptual Building Blocks for Systems Analysis 105

8 Implementing Positive Peace 112

  A Solutions-Oriented Approach 114

  Guidelines for Implementing Positive Peace 116

  Examples of Positive Peace Projects 117

  IEP Educational Programs 126

Appendix A: Positive Peace Index Methodology 129

Appendix B: Positive Peace Index Rankings 132

Endnotes 136