Pillar 5 The world’s collective security system is under severe pressure from geopolitical divides, with actors unable to prevent or end conflict. Levels of conflict and attendant humanitarian crises have increased to record levels in the past year. The peace and security pillar examines the impact of global cooperation in preventing and resolving conflicts. The focus is on the prevention of death and ameliorating the long-term negative implications of conflict through commitment to multilateral peacekeeping operations and international stabilization efforts. This pillar has deteriorated for the past seven years and continued its trajectory in 2023. All metrics in this pillar remain below their pre-pandemic averages (below the black line in Figure 13). The decline in this pillar had the largest impact on the overall barometer results.Multilateral institutions that were created to prevent and resolve conflicts have largely been unable to do so in recent years. The result has been a continued increase in conflicts in 2023, with the continued deterioration of security, including but not limited to the Middle East, Russia-Ukraine and Sudan, and a significant increase in the number of forcibly displaced people, estimated at more than 118 million in 2023 and over 122 million as of 2024.48 Actions by the UN, such as new or augmented peacekeeping missions or resolutions from the UN Security Council, have been largely confined to humanitarian assistance rather than peace-making.49 Notably, the Security Council has not mandated a new peacekeeping operation since 2014. Instead, there has been a shift towards regionally led peace operations. Recent analysis by the International Peace Institute found that cooperative actions in peace and security decreased the most among Peace and security Peace and security trends FIGURE 12 2012-20 2020-22 2022-23Improvement in: 3/6 2012-20 1/6 2020-22 2/6 2022-23-20 20 40 00.650.700.750.800.850.901.001.10 1.05 0.95 0.60 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022Escalating conﬂicts have continued to drag on overall global cooperation Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) % Peace and security index Fatalities from conﬂicts*,** Signiﬁcant cyber incidents*,** Forcibly displaced people*,** Conﬂicts* Ratio of mulitateral peacekeeping operations-to-conﬂicts Ratio of UNSC resolutions-to-conﬂicts *Metrics were reflected given negative connotation. **Outcome metrics. Note: Fatalities from conflicts is a lagging indicator. Sources: United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), UPPSALA, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), United Nations Security Council (UNSC), McKinsey & Company analysis. The Global Cooperation Barometer 2025 Second Edition 20