Education and Peacebuilding: Analysis Based on Theory and Big Data

Abstract

Education is always thought to be an effective method that can civilize human beings [1], generate national unity [2] and liberate people from the innocent and savage stage [3]. To explore whether educated people are less likely to use physical forces in conflicts and to what extent can education contributed to regional stability and peace, it is important to investigate thoroughly the casual relationship between some significant indicators of modern education and the mainstream index about national stability. This essay will firstly discuss the traditional understanding of education and its impact on peacebuilding, which includes the theories of Nationalism, Realism, and Darwinism. Subsequently, by introducing big data analysis, it will demonstrate the linear relationships between the rates of tertiary attainment, early childhood enrolment, years of schooling, and shares of government expenditure of states and their ranks in the Fragile States Index (FSI) to verify the effectiveness of education on peace building. This essay will so conclude that though education has been thought to be significant to national stability and unity, it only has moderate influence on improving states' frangibility. Moreover, a higher early year enrolment rates has a relatively prominent link to states' prosperity while a higher tertiary educational completion rate might result in a higher probability of unrest.

How does ingroup identification predict forgiveness in post‐conflict societies? The role of conflict narratives

“…For example, one of the findings was lower endorsement of the terrorism narrative among more educated across both groups in Study 1. Although this finding did not reach significance in Study 2, one may argue that educated people may prefer peace over conflict (see, e.g., Hong, 2021). Moreover, higher education allows for more intergroup contact opportunities in Northern Ireland (Tausch et al, 2007), and intergroup contact, in turn, might help to endorse alternative narratives (Uluğ & Cohrs, 2017a).…”