How can business collaborate with music and other cultural forces to build the foundations for peace?
It is true that governments sign treaties with one another or with groups within their jurisdiction to stop violence. At the same time, bonds that exist among peoples – within a country and across borders – can lessen the likelihood of conflict. Shared languages, economic trade/business investment, history, religion, legal and political systems, for example, […]
What Role Can Business Play in the Pursuit of Peace? Summary Thoughts
Business Fights Poverty hosted a month-long conference on the topic of the role businesses can play in the pursuit of peace. A subject little discussed twenty years ago, this has become a vibrant topic and the October event was a time and place to pause and reflect on this question. The conference welcomed those who […]
The Peace Attributes of Companies (PACO) index
Given the growth and maturity of the field of business and peace, in this article we call for the creation of an index that would present a scorecard of company behaviors. We call this the PACO index, which is an acronym for Peaceful Attributes of Companies and is the word for peace in Esperanto. We […]
Operationalizing Peace through Commerce
Most scholars would agree that the goal of business is to create value. Yet, can there be anything more valuable than peace? My article tackles the following research question: How can, or do, businesses advance peace? It explains why peace through commerce is a topic worthy of study and sets out an empirical approach to […]
Can and should enlightened global businesses solve real global problems like war and poverty?
World headlines show the global community is faced with serious problems of conflict and instability: 10,000 or more deaths per year from the Mexican Drug War, Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Insurgency, and ethnic violence in South Sudan. 1,000-9,999 deaths per year in Gaza and from civil wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Northwest Pakistan, Egypt, and […]
Coca-Cola’s Contribution to Stability, Growth, and Optimism
In my article, I review the role of a global commercial organization, The Coca-Cola Company, in contributing to national stability in developing markets through a strategic approach to social and economic contribution. The company’s initiatives complement the role of policymakers, who are primarily responsible for the safety and prosperity of citizens, often using the Golden […]
Legitimate Business and Peace should be natural allies, so what is the best argument for bringing the private sector into peacebuilding efforts?
There is an irony to current thinking on the private sector and peacebuilding. The conflict in Syria and the massive international response to the refugee crisis has made private sector investment and jobs for refugees the flavour of the month. From the London Syria conference to the UN General Assembly in 2016, donors have lined […]
Why Business May Contribute to Peace
What is increasingly clear from our work at the SDG Fund (a UN development mechanism, multi-donor agency that brings together UN Agencies, governments, civil society and business to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals) the complexity of the SDGs converge a guiding set of principles of interest to all actors. Paloma Duran, Director of the SDG […]
Business, peace, and world politics: The role of third parties in conflict resolution
With the growing role of the private sector in global politics comes increasing challenges and opportunities, an example of which is conducting business in pre- and post-conflict environments. While the extant business literature discusses the work these actors can do to reduce tensions in conflict zones, the role of these actors is notably absent in […]
Why business leaders focus on issues of peace
While we know that business is key for stable peacebuilding, less is known about why business actually becomes involved in peace processes and peacebuilding. Based on a review of the academic literature and of case studies at the global level, in this article I address this question from three perspectives: First, business needs peace to […]
