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Integrating the Narrative

How the Narrative Works: Unit by Unit​

Unit One: Foundations (10 hours)​

Core Content: Scarcity, choice, opportunity cost, economic systems, PPC model

Peace Integration:

  • Brief framing: Societies respond to scarcity through cooperation (economic systems) or conflict
  • Economics studies the cooperative responses and institutional frameworks enabling cooperation
  • Sets narrative foundation
  • Peace application could include Guns vs Butter PPC.

Student Takeaway: Economics addresses humanity's fundamental challenge of allocating scarce resources peacefully.

Unit Two: Microeconomics (35/70 hours SL/HL)​

Core Content: Supply, demand, elasticity, market failures, property rights, public goods, information asymmetry

Peace Integration:

  • Standard microeconomic concepts taught using traditional analysis
  • Case study selections occasionally illustrate broader societal implications

Student Takeaway: Economic concepts have measurable consequences for how societies function.

Unit Three: Macroeconomics (40/75 hours SL/HL)​

Core Content: National income accounting, AD/AS, unemployment, inflation, fiscal/monetary policy, inequality

Peace Integration:

  • Standard macroeconomic content remains completely unchanged
  • Strategic contextualization of specific concepts:
    • Inequality: Extreme inequality, especially systematic group-based economic exclusion, creates both ethical concerns and stability risks
    • Youth unemployment: Represents both economic efficiency loss and potential source of instability
    • Government policy effectiveness: Governments unable to manage economies face legitimacy challenges

Student Takeaway: Economic management affects whether societies remain stable and functional.

Unit Four: The Global Economy (45/65 hours SL/HL)​

This unit synthesizes previous learning and makes connections explicit

4.1-4.4: Trade and Economic Integration​

Core Content: Benefits of trade, protectionism, trade agreements, economic integration, exchange rates, balance of payments

Peace Integration:

  • Trade creates economic interdependence between nations
  • Interdependence generates political incentives for stable relationships
  • Conflict would impose significant economic costs on trading partners
  • Historical example: Post-WWII European integration deliberately designed to make future war economically irrational

4.7: Sustainable Development and Peace​

This is the section that has been altered the most

Core Content: Three pillars of sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, poverty-sustainability relationships

Peace Integration - NEW: Introduce Positive Peace Framework:

The Eight Pillars of Positive Peace (all inherently economic concepts students have already learned):

  1. Well-functioning government → Public goods provision, rule of law, institutions (covered in Units 2-4)
  2. Sound business environment → Property rights, contract enforcement, markets (Unit 2)
  3. Equitable distribution → Inequality, inclusive growth (Units 3-4)
  4. Acceptance of rights of others → Social capital, trust, low transaction costs (throughout)
  5. Good relations with neighbors → Trade, integration (Unit 4)
  6. Free flow of information → Market efficiency, transparency, accountability (Unit 2)
  7. High human capital → Education, health, productivity (Units 3-4)
  8. Low corruption → Governance, institutions, resource management (Units 3-4)

Student Outcome:

  • "These eight systems are economic concepts we've been studying since Unit One"
  • "Economics has been studying what creates peaceful, prosperous societies all along"
  • "Property rights, public goods, inequality, trade, human capital—these aren't just economic factors"
  • "They're institutional foundations determining whether societies prosper peacefully or struggle with instability"

4.8: Measuring Economic Development and Peace​

Core Content: Single indicators (GDP per capita, health, education), composite indicators (HDI)

Peace Integration - NEW: Add Global Peace Index:

  • Published annually by Institute for Economics and Peace
  • Measures 163 countries on 23 indicators
  • Provides objective, quantitative data on peace levels

Empirical Pattern Students Discover:

  • Countries with high peace scores typically show high development (HDI)
  • Countries with low peace scores typically struggle with development
  • This correlation exists because both outcomes depend on the same institutional systems (the 8 Pillars)

4.9: Barriers to Economic Development​

Traditional Approach: Disconnected lists of barriers by category (institutional, economic, geographic, international)

Integrated Approach: Analyze barriers as weak institutional systems

Barriers as Weak Systems:

  • Weak government capacity (Pillar 1) → Inadequate public goods, poor infrastructure
  • Weak business environment (Pillar 2) → Property disputes, low investment, insecure contracts
  • High inequality/inequitable distribution (Pillar 3) → Grievances, social tension, limited opportunity
  • Poor information flows (Pillar 6) → Corruption, lack of accountability, market inefficiency
  • Low human capital (Pillar 7) → Limited productivity, poor health and education outcomes
  • High corruption (Pillar 8) → Resource diversion, institutional weakness

Conflict as Extreme Case:

  • Not a separate category but what happens when multiple systems collapse simultaneously
  • Creates conditions where productive economic activity becomes nearly impossible
  • Examples: Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Afghanistan

Benefits:

  • Provides analytical coherence to traditionally fragmented content
  • Students understand interconnections between barriers
  • Maintains all traditional development economics content

4.10: Strategies for Economic Growth and Development​

Traditional Approach: Long lists of strategies organized by type (market-based, interventionist, aid, etc.)

Integrated Approach: Strategies as interventions to strengthen institutional systems

Link economic concepts to strengthening societies. Examples could include:

  • Market-based reforms strengthen Pillar 2 (business environment)
  • Education investment strengthens Pillar 7 (human capital)
  • Anti-corruption measures strengthen Pillar 8
  • Trade liberalization strengthens Pillar 5 (relations with neighbors)
  • Overseas Development Aid can target specific weak pillars

Benefits:

  • Organizes traditionally fragmented strategy discussions
  • Students understand why same strategy works differently in different contexts
  • Develops analytical thinking about context-appropriate interventions
  • Maintains all traditional strategy content