Some of the most durable security of the last century was built far from any battlefield, and much of it in the global majority: in harvests, classrooms, clinics, savings funds and peace talks. Each case study asks how it was financed, who decided and what made it last.
Case studies
The Marshall Plan (1948–1952)
The United States financed Europe’s economic recovery as a security strategy, betting that functioning economies and institutions would hold the peace better than arms alone.
Botswana’s diamonds
A country turned mineral wealth into public institutions and long-term savings, an early model for governing critical resources so they build security rather than conflict.
The Green Revolution
Philanthropy, scientists and governments invested in crop research that helped avert famine across South Asia, food security built upstream of crisis.
PEPFAR (2003–)
The US response to HIV was framed as an investment in stability as much as health. The US government credits it with saving more than 25 million lives.
Women at the peace table: Liberia (2003)
Women’s mass action helped force the talks that ended Liberia’s civil war. Research cited by UN Women finds that when women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreement is 35 per cent more likely to last at least 15 years.
Post-war South Korea
Sustained investment in universal education became a foundation for growth, institutional strength and national resilience.
Bangladesh’s cyclone preparedness (1972–)
After the 1970 Bhola cyclone killed hundreds of thousands of people, the Red Crescent and the government built the Cyclone Preparedness Programme: today some 76,000 community volunteers, warnings and shelters. Cyclone Sidr in 2007 killed around 4,000 people, a small fraction of Bhola’s toll. Preparedness, organised long before the storm.
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (2005–)
Ethiopia moved from annual emergency appeals to predictable support for roughly eight million chronically food-insecure people, tied to public works that restore watersheds and build roads, health posts and classrooms. A country chose to finance resilience ahead of the next drought.
Indonesia’s green sukuk (2018)
Indonesia issued the world’s first sovereign green sukuk, raising US$1.25 billion for climate mitigation and adaptation. Faith-aligned capital, structured by a government, financing resilience at sovereign scale.
Mexico’s Progresa (1997)
Conditional cash transfers for poor families, designed with rigorous evaluation from day one, survived three changes of president over more than two decades and inspired similar programmes in more than 60 countries.
Rwanda’s community health insurance
After the genocide, Rwanda rolled out community-based health insurance nationally from 2004–05, reaching around 85 per cent of the population, alongside tens of thousands of community health workers. Under-five mortality fell by roughly two-thirds between 2000 and 2015: health as a foundation of national recovery.
Women at the peace table: Colombia (2016)
Colombia’s peace talks created a gender sub-commission, and the final accord contains 130 gender provisions by the Kroc Institute’s count. Peace was written with the people who would have to carry it.
