World has become less peaceful
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COMMENTS 
The world has become less peaceful over the last year, despite a drop in the number of armed conflicts, according to this year’s Global Peace Index
India has slipped to a low 128 among 149 countries in the Global Peace Index (GPI) ranking alongside Pakistan and Sri Lanka in experiencing incidents of internal conflict, terrorism and human rights abuses. With an overall score of 2,516 points, India is a sandwich between Thailand (127) and the Philippines (129).
In the previous three years since the GPI was initiated, India’s rankings were 109/121 countries (2007) 107/140 countries (2008) and 122/144 countries (2009). The ranking reflects its worsening relations with neighbouring countries, and an increased number of deaths from external and internal conflicts.
However, the country improved its political stability. Overall, it received high scores for low military expenditure per capita, low number of displaced people, and low number of heavy weapons per 100,000 people, the report said.
The only study to quantify global peacefulness, the GPI is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a global think-tank that researches the relationship between economics, business and peace.
According to the report, South Asia saw the greatest decrease in peacefulness, as a result of increased involvement in conflicts, a rise in deaths from internal conflict, and human rights abuses. Overall, the world became less peaceful for the second consecutive year, the fourth annual GPI published June 9, 2010, said.
“As the global economy continues to falter, this year’s data shows an intensification of conflicts and growing instability linked to the downturn that began in 2008, with several countries seeing sharp increases in homicides, violent demonstrations and fear of crime,” it said.
The rankings of countries are calculated using 23 indicators such as violent crime, political stability and military expenditure, correlated against a number of social development indicators such as corruption, freedom of the press, respect for human rights and school enrolment rates.
For the second year running, New Zealand is rated the most peaceful country in the world, with Iceland climbing back up to second place, after dropping from the top slot in 2008 to fourth place last year. Japan ranks third. Fifteen of the top 20 countries are western or central European states, and all Scandinavian countries are listed in the top 10, suggesting that small, stable, democratic countries are the most peaceful.
Figures show that Africa has become the most improved region of the world for peacefulness over the last four years. The continent has experienced fewer conflicts, less military spending and improved cross-border relations. However, sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the planet’s least peaceful areas, with nine states featuring in the bottom 20 countries listed.
The Middle East has also shown improvements in its levels of peacefulness since 2006, largely through decreasing military spending and improved relations between states. For the fourth year running, Iraq was found to be the least peaceful country, followed by Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan.
This year, five extra countries were added to the index -- Armenia, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland, which rank 113, 63, 99, 53 and 73 respectively.
The rankings could provide useful backing to donor governments re-thinking their aid strategies. The UK government is currently reviewing the countries to which it gives aid and has set up a National Security Council to pull together plans for development and defence.
Source: Press Trust of India, June 9, 2010
www.guardian.co.uk, June 2010