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20 Nov, 2018

New Index to map global peace over the centuries, and find ways to improve it

Sydney, November 19, 2018: (IEP media release) – The Seshat: Global History Databank (Seshat) and the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) have announced a partnership to launch the Historical Peace Index at the University of Oxford.

The Index will use cutting-edge statistic methods and robust historical data to map Global Peace over thousands of years, and provide evidence-based insight into how to improve levels of Global Peace in the future.

The Historical Peace Index will follow the methodology of IEP’s Global Peace Index, extending it back in time and using the same or similar indicators as contained in the GPI. By extending these measures to a host of societies spread over the last 5,000 years and throughout the world the Historical Peace Index will allow researchers, policy makers, and other advocates for peace a means to track the long-term evolution of the different elements of peacefulness.

IEP’s Founder, Steve Killelea said “IEP is very happy to partner with Oxford University. Peace is at the heart of the world’s future sustainability, because without a world that is basically peaceful, we will never have the levels of trust, co-operation or inclusiveness necessary to solve humanity’s global sustainability challenges. Peace is a prerequisite. The partnership between IEP and SESHAT will help to make this possible.”

Seshat Co-founder Prof Harvey Whitehouse said “Many have appealed to historical examples to support their views on current public policy but this has usually meant cherry picking while ignoring counter-examples. The Historical Peace Index will allow us to identify the precursors to peace worldwide over thousands of years and so provide a more objective way of learning from the past to plan better for the future.”