Contributed by Olga Vannucci.
Just the Facts
- Humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of the 3,400 years of recorded history, 8% of the time. The U.S. has been at peace for 17 of its 240 years of existence, 7% of the time.
- The world spends just $1 on conflict prevention for every $1,885 it spends on military budgets. In the U.S., taxpayers provide almost $1 billion per year for military academies, and only about $40 million for the United States Institute of Peace—the only U.S. agency dedicated to conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
- Yet investing early to prevent conflicts from escalating into violent crises is, on average, 60 times more cost effective than intervening once violence erupts.
- Between 1990 and 2017, women constituted only 2% of mediators, 8% of negotiators, and 5% of witnesses and signatories in all major peace processes.
- Yet when women are included in peace processes, there is a 35% increase in the probability of an agreement lasting at least 15 years.
Sources: The New York Times and https://freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/50473 and http://www.olympiafor.org/prevention_60_1_cost_effective.pdf and http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/peace-and-security/facts-and-figures