This would probably had gone in the News Bucket, if we had one today. But I have not seen it blogged anywhere – so let’s put it out there.
I caught this headline in The Guardian this morning:
Want peace? Then live in Scandinavia, says study
Scandinavian countries are the most peaceful in the world, and Iraq the most dangerous and violent, according to a new international league table published yesterday. The UK is listed 49th of the 121 countries surveyed, with the United States at 96. The Global Peace Index uses 24 different factors to assess a country’s level of violence and danger.
Below::
I looked around a bit, and found a few more articles and commentary. Also the source – Global Peace Index
The Global Peace Index has been developed in conjunction with:
* The Economist Intelligence Unit
* an international panel of peace experts from Peace Institutes and Think Tanks
* the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney, Australia[on the ‘About’ page]
From The Guardian yesterday:
Norway comes top of the table with its near neighbours Denmark, Sweden and Finland all listed in the top seven. New Zealand is second and Ireland fourth, one place above Japan.
…
The Economist Intelligence Unit compiled the index on behalf of the Australian IT entrepreneur and philanthropist, Steve Killelea, who said he hoped it would encourage nations to address the issue of peace. It has the support of the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former US president Jimmy Carter.
The survey found that “small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs, such as the European Union, are most likely to get a higher ranking”. The main determinants of internal peace were income, extent of schooling and the level of regional integration.
Another commentary:
After compiling the Index, the researchers examined it for patterns in
order to identify the “drivers” that make for peaceful societies. They
found that peaceful countries often shared high levels of democracy and
transparency of government, education and material well-being. While the
U.S. possesses many of these characteristics, its ranking was brought down
by its engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels
of incarceration and homicide. The U.S.’s rank also suffered due to the
large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status
as one of the world’s military-diplomatic powers.
The main findings of the Global Peace Index are:— Peace is correlated to indicators such as income, schooling and the
level of regional integration
— Peaceful countries often shared high levels of transparency of
government and low corruption
— Small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs are most
likely to get a higher ranking
Is there something inherent to large, populous nations that prevents them from being peaceful?
There are only two nations with a population of 50 million+ (somewhat arbitrary definition of populous) among the top 20; Japan and Germany. Both are nations with policies (imposed and self-imposed) since WWII intended to reduce/prevent the potential for conflict.