“Business for Peace” is a fast-growing but highly debated academic field that examines
the positive role that businesses can play in warzones such as the Ukraine. The University
of York School for Business and Society has become a hub for driving the debate in this new
line of thinking about the role of businesses in society

The intentions and actions of private businesses are often regarded with suspicion, and they
are nowadays held under close scrutiny for their role in polluting the environment and
flouting human rights. Less attention, however, is paid to their role in warzones, but the
topic is more nuanced than one might first suspect.

Can businesses help to provide the conditions for long-lasting peace in fragile states and
zones of military strife and conflict around the world? This is just one of the questions being
asked in the fast-growing but highly debated academic field of Business for Peace.

Business for Peace is all about understanding how businesses, including both local and
international companies can promote the conditions for peace in war zones and conflict
zones such as Ukraine, the Middle East, Ethiopia, Myanmar, the DRC, and Afghanistan.

At the end of 2022, experts from around the world working in the field of Business for Peace
gathered at the University of York for a workshop organised by the School for Business and
Society. Many of the biggest names from this growing community of researchers came to
speak in York to provide different perspectives on the topic, including Tim Thornton, the
American academic who coined the term “Business for Peace”.

Professor Christopher Williams of the University of York explains more about this intriguing topic.

“The Business for Peace question is an interesting one because, at the end of the day,
private sector companies want to make money. In a fragile situation such as a warzone, they
can end up being heavily criticised if they get things wrong, perhaps by doing something
which sides with one of the competing areas of groups. Carrying out business while
maintaining credibility is therefore a real balancing act.”

“But what we want to examine is, can they also play a positive role in these situations? For
instance, one of our speakers, Mark van Dorp from LSE, spoke about Heineken and its
strategy in Mozambique. He has been advising them about the security of their breweries
and spoke about the increasing awareness of the need to move from legal compliance and
do no harm/conflict-sensitivity to a more proactive approach of business with regard to
potential peace-positive impact.

“In other words, it’s not just about putting up barbed wire around the perimeter of the
business – it’s also about managing relationships with local communities.”

Businesses as democracy defenders in a post-Ukraine era

Jason Miklian from the University of Oslo has been re-examining the topic of Business for
Peace in light of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Firms are increasingly willing to

recognise the importance of their role in social responsibility and human rights, but few
work significantly on the activity that has the highest correlation to peace: the
strengthening of democracy.

But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a host of multinational companies took
action in a surprising way. They went beyond the minimum required by sanctions and
shuttered operations in Russia, at significant short- and long-term costs. They coupled these
actions with strong statements in support of Ukraine and global democracy. So is it possible
that businesses are truly moving from passive democracy actors to a more active frontline
stand, or is this simply a one-off outlier that will morph back to ‘business as usual‘?

Read more about Jason’s work here

Leading organisations in and after violent conflict

While the concept of Business for Peace has developed and grown over the past decades,
less is understood about the leadership behaviors and practices of those running
businesses and engaged in the delivery of services during and after conflict. This is often
a hidden story of individuals and teams leading and managing through and beyond
sustained violence.

Organisations themselves can inadvertently reinforce and recreate the conditions that
sustain conflict through micro and miso level interactions. However, by better
understanding these interactions and leadership strategies that can avoid them, it is
possible to shift behaviours and practices to allow organisations to act as active
peacebuilders – rather than managers of division by default.

Joanne Murphy from the University of Birmingham has looked at the experiences of those
leading in public, private and third sector organisations in Northern Ireland, the Basque
region and Bosnia Herzegovinian and has underlined that in very many conflict afflicted
regions, organisations and their leaders are already acting as peacebuilders, but often in
isolation and considerable personal risk to themselves.

Read more about Joanne’s work here

To find out more about the topic of Business for Peace, read this blog from the University
of York School for Business and Society