In October 2024, the ELN partnered with the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) to convene a dozen non-governmental experts in peace and conflicts, from various countries and relevant professional backgrounds, to consider the state of international conflict resolution and what might be done to improve it.
The outlook for conflict resolution is bad and getting worse. IEP data, including data from its flagship Global Peace Index, show that there are more conflicts, more countries involved in conflict, more countries with a deteriorating peace score, and more countries increasing their militarisation than at any time since IEP started monitoring in 2008. The data show minor conflicts spreading, with the potential to become major.
This means the highest chance since 2008 of further major conflict. No less troubling is the evidence that international conflict mediation is structurally and professionally inadequate for the task. More broadly, the international climate seems to have changed and arguably no longer values peace as highly.
The situation is alarming and merits strenuous efforts to reverse present trends. Participants devoted their discussion to what could realistically be done.
The attached report is a highly selective summary of a rich and wide-ranging discussion.
The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the authors rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / azugaldia
