LATEST INSIGHTS
A new paradigm for building peace
Robert J Berg
Lord Desmond Browne
Published by the European Leadership Network, December 2025
We expected a peace dividend after the Cold War. Instead, conflict has grown.
The Institute for Economics and Peace’s (IEP) Global Peace Index 2025 flags two distressing trends. First, there are 59 active state-based conflicts, the most since World War II. Among the ongoing conflicts, the most notable is the Russia–Ukraine war, which continues to threaten peace across Europe. Second, geopolitical tensions have risen since 2008, reflecting broader fragmentation and a heightened risk of war.
Too often, we underfund peace and settle for piecemeal measures. Society-wide approaches have been effective in ending conflicts in the Southern Philippines and Liberia, and did work for several years in Colombia. However, the broader record is sobering, and progress in Colombia has become fragile.
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