Interview with Steve Killelea
Entrepreneur / Global Peace Advocate
Where are you from, and why there?
I live in Sydney, Australia, which is also the city where I was born. I live on the Northern Beaches; in fact, if I walk out my back door I am on one of the best surfing beaches in Sydney. I have spent most of my life surfing and it is an experience that really grounds one. It requires a lot of physical strength, there is also a spiritual dimension to it; it’s dangerous, yet at the same time peaceful. You also meet people from all walks of life so it has a levelling effect as the only thing surfers talk about is the surf.
I have travelled through most major cities in the world and I think the Northern Beaches of Sydney are as good as it gets. Before COVID, I would spend a third of my life on a plane, sometimes going to ten countries on a trip; Sydney by far was the greenest city I would fly into. Career-wise, I would be better situated in New York, London, Geneva, or Brussels, but I have always placed a premium on the quality of life.
Which issues do you work on/care about, and why?
My career has two major thrusts currently: The first is the family foundation I started with my wife — The Charitable Foundation — which is a developmental aid organisation working with poorest of the poor. It does interventions that are substantial, with the aim of touching as many people as possible for the money spent. The foundation has been going for 20 years and the direct beneficiaries number 3.6 million people. It focuses mainly on East and Central Africa and North East Asia. The projects are varied and range from starvation relief to child-soldier rehabilitation; cataracts; and improved agricultural yields to better water capture, to name some. The aim is simple: to alleviate human suffering.
However, most of my time goes into the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) — a non-partisan global think tank set up to understand the relationship between business, peace, and economics. It produces products such as the Global Peace Index, Global Terrorism Index, and the Ecological Threat Register. Last year the Institute received 26 billion media impressions. Peace is one of the prerequisites for a sustainable world because, without it, we will never get the levels of trust, cooperation, or inclusiveness necessary to solve the world’s major problems, such climate change, ever-decreasing bio-diversity, full use of the available fresh water on the planet, etc. It is also something we surprisingly don’t know a lot about.
How did you get involved?
My life has been in many ways been shaped by a progression of chance happenings, which has fuelled my career — and my journey into peace was no different. Working with the poorest of the poor has taken me into many conflict zones and near post-war zones. I was in North-East Kivu in the DRC, which is one of the more violent places in the world, and I started to think, what are the opposite of all these stressed-out countries that we are working in? I returned to Sydney, searched the internet and couldn’t find the nations of the world by their levels of peacefulness — that was how the Global Peace Index was born.
But that creates a fundamental question: What struck me was that if a simple businessman, such as myself, could be walking through Africa and wonder which are the most peaceful nations in the world and the research hadn’t been done, then how much do we know about peace? If you can’t measure something, how can it be understood; and if it isn’t measured then how do we know whether our actions are helping or hindering us in achieving our goals? The other realisation was the economic value of peace: The Institute for Economics and Peace calculated it at $15 trillion in 2020 or 11.6% of global GDP — and that's a conservative figure.
What are the biggest challenges for the issue(s) today?
The biggest issue the world is facing today is the inability to get international cooperation around many of the major intractable issues facing humanity, some of which have already been mentioned. Rhetoric around international conflict is on the rise, as is militarisation. But our leaders are mostly ignorant about what creates a sustainable and resilient peace. It’s not their fault — it’s something that is not well studied. The world is becoming more interconnected and at an ever-increasing pace. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the interdependence of supply chains. It’s a complicated system and not understood. Our governments and international bodies’ actions are all aimed at creating better systems; however, the very fundamentals of systemic thinking or analysis are not understood or undertaken.
Who are your most frequent allies in your field? Any surprises?
In the field of peace most of the major multi-lateral organisations are ones we work with; they use our work and we do research for them (such as the United Nations and its various entities; the Commonwealth Secretariat; the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; and the World Bank, to name some). Many governments use our work to help guide policy and the financial markets to better assess country risk. But probably the most surprising ally in many places is the military. Most senior military people realise that, although they can defeat an enemy, they cannot create a lasting peace. This lesson has been driven home by the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, by both Russia and the US and its allies.
What drives you?
I often get asked this question and have pondered on it frequently. The honest answer is I do not know. However, I like working in entrepreneurial areas, ones that are complex, global, and will positively affect other people. I think in many ways we are all born with a natural thrust, it comes through intuitively. Often people seek money and maximise their activities around it, but by following our inner desires we are more likely to work with our best abilities and, in this, a virtuous cycle is created: We like what we are doing, therefore we put more time in and utilise our best abilities. It’s a recipe for success.
What do you want your career/advocacy to stand for?
I guess all things are impermanent. Even our sun one day will die, so it’s good not to get too carried away with our personal legacy. However, imagine that life is a rich and vibrant tapestry; one can hope for nothing more than to weave a few threads with golden thread and a silver needle. Nothing could be worse than to take to it with a pair of scissors.
For more information about Steve and his new book, 'Peace in the Age of Chaos: The Best Solution for a Sustainable Future', visit https://www.peaceintheageofchaos.org/