Global Peace Index 2013

According to the 2013 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the world is a less peaceful place.  Overall, the world is 5 percent less peaceful than in 2008, with war-ravaged Syria's global peace index declining the most, by 70 percent.

A dramatic rise in the number of homicides and 59 more countries increasing their military expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product were the key drivers in making the world a less peaceful place, according to the 2013 GPI.

The most peaceful region in the world is Europe, which has 13 of the top 20 most peaceful countries. All the countries in Europe score higher than average, except Turkey. The top three most peaceful countries are Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand. Small and stable democracies make up the top ten most peaceful countries.
North America is the second most peaceful region in the world, although the United States ranks 100th out of 162 countries. The U.S. ranks especially high in the nuclear and heavy weapons category and with its jailed population, all indicators of a non-peaceful nation.

The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, high homicide rates and a wide availability of small-arms.

The sharp increase in the number of homicides — up eight per cent over the last year — can be almost entirely attributed to Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa with, for example, the homicide rate in Honduras further increasing by almost 10 per 100,000 people — becoming the highest in the world at 92 homicides per 100,000 people.
The overall deterioration of the military spending indicator in the GPI is primarily due to a large number of low-middle income countries, typically authoritarian regimes like Iran, Iraq, Oman, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of the Congo having increased their expenditure to more than seven per cent of GDP.
In contrast, some slight improvements were evident over the last year on the indicators of the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the Political Terror Scale, a measure of State-sponsored terror, with improvements in countries such as Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Zambia, and Tunisia.

Syria’s descent into civil war recorded the greatest score deterioration in the history of the Index. Additionally, many Middle Eastern and North African countries continue to be affected by the fallout from the Arab Spring with violent demonstrations and further political instability.

The data also revealed evidence of countries being able to make significant gains in peace. Libya, for example, experienced the greatest rise in peace as its newly elected government and recovering institutions were established following the turmoil of the recent revolution and civil war. North Africa also had more to celebrate as Sudan and Chad experienced the second and third most substantial gains as their respective conflicts eased.

Ranking of India

India ranks low at 141in this year’s Global Peace Index (GPI) that measured peace in 162 countries, according to 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators of the absence and fear of violence. The major indicators that bring down India’s ranking are militarisation, domestic and international conflicts, and corruption.

However, despite an increase in military expenditure, India made positive gains in its level of peace after reductions in deaths from internal conflict and the level of perceived criminality in society.

In the South Asian region, Sri Lanka is one notch above India at rank four while Bhutan is the most peaceful country. It is followed by Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in that order.