2012 Global Peace Index: World Becomes Slightly More Peaceful in the Last Year-Reversing a Two-Year Trend
Nations Improve External Peace-Seeking to Project Economic Power More Than Military - Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time not the least peaceful region - Economic benefit to global economy estimated at US$9 trillion if world had been completely peaceful - Iceland is the country most at peace for the second successive year - Syria tumbles by largest margin dropping over 30 places to 147th position - Somalia remains world's least peaceful nation for second year running
(firmenpresse) - LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwire) -- 06/12/12 -- Editors Note: There are three photos and one video associated with this press release.
Improvements in the Political Terror Scale(1) and gains in several indicators of militarisation(2) arising from austerity-driven defence cuts were the two leading factors making the world more peaceful in 2012, according to the latest (GPI) released today. This reverses two consecutive years where the GPI has shown a decline in global peace. If the world had been completely peaceful, the economic benefit to the global economy would have been an estimated US$9 trillion in the past year (equal to the size of the German and Japanese economies combined.)
The GPI is the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by the (IEP). It gauges on-going domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society, and militarisation in 158 countries by taking into account 23 separate indicators.
All regions apart from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) saw an improvement, with Sub-Saharan Africa lifting off of the bottom spot for the first time since the GPI was launched in 2007. Madagascar, Gabon and Botswana experienced notable improvements over the past year and the region also shows the largest improvement in 'Relations with Neighbouring States' from 2009 to 2012.
Through its decline in peacefulness the Middle East and North Africa are now the least peaceful regions globally. The drop largely reflects the upheaval and instability driven by the Arab Spring. Indeed the five indicators that deteriorated the most across the GPI last year were measures of safety and security in society, and appear to reflect turbulence that has shaken the Arab world since December 2010. Syria's descent into civil war caused it to fall by the largest margin, followed by post-revolution Egypt and Tunisia respectively.
"What comes across dramatically in this year's results and the six year trends is a shift in global priorities. Nations have become externally more peaceful as they compete through economic, rather than military means. The results for Sub Saharan Africa as a whole are particularly striking - regional wars have waned as the African Union strives to develop economic and political integration." said , founder and Executive Chairman of the IEP. "Peacefulness has returned to approximately the levels seen in 2007, but while external measures of peacefulness have improved, there has been a rise in internal conflict. This is particularly noticeable in the rise in fatalities from terrorist acts which have more than trebled since 2003."
The trend data also show a substantial gap in peacefulness between democracies and other government types. Flawed democracies perform substantially better than hybrid and authoritarian regimes which suggest that measures of government repression, such as the 'Political Terror Scale' and the 'Level of Internally Organised Conflict', are close predictors of peacefulness.
Killelea continued: "The six year trend analysis shows that countries in the top and bottom of the Index rarely move out - suggesting peace is 'sticky' at both ends. There is also a notable 'tipping point' after which relatively small gains in peacefulness seem to be associated with large falls in corruption and large increases in GDP per capita. As countries look to develop policy-makers would do well take note of the Peace Dividend and review the frameworks that deliver the most peaceful societies."
OTHER REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
The Asia Pacific region's overall score improved by the largest extent from last year and included three of the top five risers. Sri Lanka experienced the greatest improvement in its overall peacefulness following the ending of its civil war. Bhutan showed robust gains to enter the top 20 for the first time mainly as tensions eased surrounding ethnic-Nepali refugees. The Philippines also showed a robust rise across a number of indicators.
For the sixth consecutive year, Western Europe remains markedly the most peaceful region with the majority of countries ranking in the top 20. While Norway dropped out of the top 10 for the first time to 18th position, three Nordic countries stay ranked in the top 10, with high levels of safety and security indicating broadly harmonious societies free from conflict.
North America experienced a slight improvement, continuing a trend since 2007. Canada jumped three places in this year's rankings as a result of fewer casualties among its troops stationed in Afghanistan. The United States' overall score also improved slightly thanks to reductions in the percentage of jailed population, although it slipped a number of places as a result of larger gains made by other countries.
Latin America also experienced an overall gain in peacefulness, with 16 of the 23 nations seeing improvements to their GPI scores.
NOTES TO EDITORS
GPI report, video, and interactive maps are available at .
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About the Institute for Economics & Peace
The Institute for Economics & Peace is an international non-profit research organization dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.
In 2012 five new countries (Benin, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho and Mauritius) were added to the index, bringing the total to 158 nations covering 99% of the world's population.
For more information: .
(1) The political terror scale measures levels of political violence and terror.
(2) Six of the world's top military spenders (Brazil, France, Germany, India, UK and the US) all cut their defence budgets in 2011.
To view the GPI 2012 Endorsers, please visit the following link: .
To view the GPI 2012 Fact Sheet, please visit the following link: .
To view the GPI 2012 Map, please visit the following link: .
To view the GPI 2012 Full Report, please visit the following link: .
To view the photos associated with this press release, please visit the following links:
To view the 2012 Global Peace Index video, please visit the one of the following links: or .
Contacts:
Global:Hill + Knowlton Strategies:
Global:Hill + Knowlton Strategies
Rob Foyle
+44 20 7413 3512
Global:Hill + Knowlton Strategies
Rima Sacre
+44 20 7973 4427
US: Edelman
Craig Brownstein
+1 202 326 1799
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Datum: 12.06.2012 - 04:05 Uhr
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