Policy Brief No.274: When Growth Becomes a Peace and Security Risk

Image: AI Generated / Toda Peace Institute

This policy brief argues that the persistence of GDP as the organising framework for economic policy is not merely a measurement problem but a governance failure with direct consequences for peace and security. Growth models that reward environmental destruction, deepen inequality within national societies, and misprice systemic risk generate the structural conditions for instability. The Beyond GDP initiative launched under United Nations auspices represents a threshold moment. The brief examines how GDP-centred economic paradigms undermine conflict prevention, resilience, and early warning capacity, and concludes with policy recommendations centred on the development of a single composite wellbeing measure to be reported alongside GDP, together with targeted proposals for multilateral institutions, national governments, and the peacebuilding community.