Types of peaceful nations

Types of peaceful nations

The many activities labeled 'peacebuilding' usually lack a clear articulation of the bigger picture peace towards which they work. What is the peace writ large to which efforts hope to add up? What are the characteristics of peaceful nations? While some have answered these questions in theory, this paper will explore these questions by looking at today's empirical realities. What types of peaceful nations exist in today's world? Examining the rankings in the Global Peace Index and identifying the most peaceful nations in each of nine regions of the world, this study classifies those most peaceful nations by their types of peace. The MDS model reveals 3 distinct primary clusters of peaceful nations, and one unique country. The model also shows second-order clustering of the countries inside one of the primary clusters. Figure 1 shows the primary clusters, named according to the characteristics that distinguish the clustered countries from the other peaceful nations. These clusters are: the Established Democracies (upper right), the Emerging Nations (center), the Externally Peaceful countries (upper left), and Oman (bottom left). The second-order clustering occurs among the 9 countries of the established democracies cluster. There
are 3 sub-clusters: the Western Democracies, the Regionally Distinct countries, and Singapore as a nonclustered country.