WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) — Sitting in a hotel conference room after three days of talking about global peace, Harriet Fulbright was discussing what she had heard about the makings of a peaceful country.

The widow of Sen. J. William Fulbright, D-Ark., listed conclusions from the first Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations, including one that might sound surprising.

“Democracy was occasionally mentioned,” she said, “but democracy is not a necessary aspect of a country when it comes to peace. For example, Oman is a very peaceful country, and that’s not a democracy. And that’s just one of them.”

With delegates from 18 countries in nine regions of the world, the goal of the symposium was to better define peace and to honor those peaceful countries. It was a spinoff from the annual Global Peace Index compiled by the Institute for Peace and Economics. The index ranks 144 nations by their peacefulness and identifies potential drivers of peace with such measures as ongoing conflict, societal safety and security and militarization.

Fulbright, president and chief executive officer of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center, said that many aspects are taken into account when labeling a nation as peaceful, such as how the country respects foreigners and women.

“What is necessary when talking about government is good government, transparent government and lack of corruption. Those are the three elements,” Fulbright said.

The symposium was sponsored by the Fulbright Center and the Alliance for Peacebuilding and other non-profit organizations that promote world peace and non-violent means to solve conflict. Organizers said it was the first symposium to recognize peaceful nations and explore how they achieved and are maintaining that peace.

“War, violence and terror have all kinds of statistics and analysis. Peace has nothing but concepts except for the ranking by the Global Peace Index,” Fulbright said.

Chic Dambach, president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, said that the only way democracy leads to peace is if it is done in a positive and constructive manner. He said a stable government is not the only factor when developing a peaceful nation.

“There is certainly a correlation between violence and poverty. Countries that are extremely poor are the countries that are filled with violence,” Dambach said, noting that poor countries in areas like sub-Saharan Africa use violence to get the resources needed for survival.

However, prosperous countries do not always fare well in the peace index. The most recent tally, for example, placed the United States 83rd.