The sustainability-peace nexus: why is it important?

Sustainability and peace have long been recognized within academic and policy circles as intrinsically interrelated. Although there are some studies that examine impacts of sustainability on peace and vice versa, a specific focus on the sustainability-peace nexus remains marginal in academic and policy discourses, and pathways where sustainability and peace interact remain ambiguous. As a result, global initiatives on peace and sustainability remain fragmented. It is, therefore, crucial to identify the different components that mutually reinforce the desirable outcomes from sustainability and peace initiatives. This special feature of Sustainability Science aims to contribute to a better understanding of these components by highlighting the emerging discourses on the peace-sustainability nexus and the issues surrounding it. It includes articles that provide insights to better address issues at the nexus of peace and sustainability. Key takeaways for scientists and policy makers are that systemic approaches are needed to capture the multiple dynamic interactions between peace and sustainability; addressing issues at the intersection of peace and sustainability requires interactions between a wide range of stakeholders within and across various local, regional, national, and global scales; and international scientific collaboration is essential for comprehensive understanding of the interactions between peace and sustainability. We hope that this special feature will contribute to a better understanding of the complexities of the peace-sustainability nexus and provide insights into developing more effective solutions and strategies for making progress towards creating more peaceful and sustainable communities in the future.

The literature landscape on peace-sustainability nexus: A scientometric analysis.

Academics, policymakers, and practitioners have long considered peace and sustainability to be fundamentally linked. However, despite the increased attention paid toward the intersection of peace and sustainability, there is still limited knowledge on the nature of their linkages. To advance the current understanding on the peace-sustainability nexus and inform an integrated research agenda, this paper employs a scientometric analysis of literature to identify publication trends, thematic clusters, and knowledge gaps. Analyzing the publications according to the types of peace, the pillars of positive peace, the dimensions of sustainability, and the SDGs further reveals weak engagement among academic disciplines and across the SDGs. The results of this analysis emphasize the need for future research to focus on underexamined subjects, geographic regions, and sectors to bolster the linkages between peace and sustainability.

Four propositions on integrated sustainability: toward a theoretical framework to understand the environment, peace, and sustainability nexus.

The sustainability agenda has evolved around a set of interconnected dilemmas regarding economic, social, and environmental goals. Progress has been made in establishing thresholds and targets that must be achieved to enable life to continue to thrive on the planet. However, much work remains to be done in articulating coherent theoretical frameworks that adequately describe the mechanisms through which sustainability outcomes are achieved. This paper reviews core concepts in the sustainability agenda to develop four propositions on integrated sustainability that collectively describe the underlying mechanisms of sustainable development. We then advance a framework for integrated sustainability and assess its viability through linear regression and principal components analysis of key selected indicators. The results provide preliminary evidence that countries with institutions that enable cooperation and regulate competition perform better in attaining integrated sustainability indicators. Our findings suggest that institutional design is important to sustainability outcomes and that further research into process-oriented mechanisms and institutional characteristics can yield substantial dividends in enabling effective sustainability policy. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-00925-y.

A co-designed heuristic guide for investigating the peace-sustainability nexus in the context of global change.

The interlinkages between peace and sustainability are embedded in several international agreements and declarations and recognized by various research studies. However, the characteristics of their bidirectional relationship remain underexamined. Here we scope the complex and multifaceted relationship between peace and sustainability based on an experts workshop held at Hiroshima University in August 2019. The workshop focused on how peace, as a process or a condition, can help or hinder sustainability and vice versa. Relevant environmental, socio-political, and economic and technological considerations highlighted at the workshop were integrated into a co-designed heuristic guide for investigating the peace-sustainability nexus in the context of global change. The proposed guide aims to assist academic and policy researchers in identifying the specific pathways through which peace and sustainability interact when addressing complex challenges. The reinforcing potential of the two will ultimately depend on the governance and management of global transformations.