The field of international security is notoriously difficult to work in. One trend is the way in which we measure progress in this field. Before we draw conclusions on the crosscutting impact of international security policies and instruments, a more critical look is required towards indicators and indices used to measure progress.   

Training International Security

Clingendael’s training and courses on International Security deal with these deeper issues and aim to enable you to use the newly acquired insights in this field by actively applying them into your professional surroundings. The main goal is to ensure that policy and programming become more effective.

Measuring Peace

Indexing is a trend in international security as the way in which we measure the state and progress of the world. We try to capture the entire world in indices: there are indexes on corruption, on freedom of press, conflict, fragility, on literacy, think tanks and even on happiness.

Although we know that these views only provide part of the picture, we still tend to explain developments on the sole basis of these indices, thereby overlooking the implications of such rankings. Moreover, we try to measure the impact of policies and programs along indicators, while leaving out a lot of relevant information.

The need to improve data collection

Why would we not be more interested in breaking new ground when it comes to improving the collecting of information in security and justice, and subsequently improve our policies and programming in this field? The more our work is based on solid evidence, the more effective our work can be and the more progress we can make.

These thoughts formed the heart of the discussions organised by Clingendael at the Knowledge Platform during the Measuring Peace event and the presentation of the Global Peace Index 2016. Together with experts in the field, Clingendael discussed the challenge of using data in order to improve our foreign policies and development programmes related to security and justice.

Indices to improve peace work?

The discussions proved that indices are effective advocacy tools, useful to start conversations and essential to focus research to specific problems and underlying factors. Critical and comparative studies of indices can encourage more targeted research, policy work and early-warning conflict analysis tools. However, indices should not be the be-all and end-all of measuring peace work.

More information

Clingendael Academy does not only provide courses and training on diverse topics and skills in the field of international security and diplomacy, but also contributes as moderator, facilitator and panelist in order to ensure that we actively engage with all challenges in these fields. For more information, please contact Rob Sijstermans or read his latest blog "The numbers tell the tale".