As some of you may know, I’ve been creating a new “practicum” for my business school — we’re calling in “Business Development in Conflict Zones” and it’s all about exploring the idea that business and commerce play an important role in supporting peace and peace-building efforts.
Now, don’t tell anyone, but I know NOTHING about creating a three-credit graduate-level course — and certainly not one that uses MBA students as consultants to a business operating in a conflict zone! But, somehow I got permission to make this happen and have been lucky enough to have two amazingly supportive professors on my side.
This past week, I’ve been scrambling to put the final touches on the suggested reading list for the five students who applied and were accepted into the practicum. While I’ve found some great stuff out there, one of the graphics just keeps popping up again and again in my head. So I’m sharing it with you — it’s the Global Peace Index Map and it color-codes the levels of peace in countries around the world:
Now, one of the things that immediately jumped out at me was that the U.S. has a low level of peace — and that Chile and Argentina are both considered to have higher levels of peace than the U.S.! I was also struck by how few countries are coded in blue for high or very high levels of peace. Sad, no?
