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What Country is Ranked the Most Peaceful?

posted by n1 on Sunday August 10 2014, @03:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the no,-your-guess-wasn't-even-close dept.

gewg_ writes:

AlterNet reports:

"We are living in the most peaceful century in human history; however, the 2014 Global Peace Index shows that the last seven years has shown a notable deterioration in levels of peace."

So begins this year's peace index [script heavy site], an annual report released by the nonprofit Institute for Economics and Peace. The study ranks 162 countries (covering 99.6% of the world's population) according to a complex set of indicators that gauge the absence of violence and political instability. These include a nation's level of military expenditure, its relations with neighboring countries and the percentage of the population held in prisons.

Check out this infographic [pdf] to see which countries are the most and least peaceful, and access the IEP's full report here [pdf].

Most peaceful countries
1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Austria
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Finland
7. Canada
8. Japan
9. Belgium
10. Norway

Least peaceful countries
1. Syria
2. Afghanistan
3. South Sudan
4. Iraq
5. Somalia
6. Sudan
7. Central African Republic
8. Democratic Republic of the Congo
9. Pakistan
10. North Korea
 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Jiro on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:25PM

    by Jiro (3176) on Sunday August 10 2014, @07:25PM (#79734)

    I didn't say that all the figures are caused by minorities, I used that as an example of what was wrong. The *main* problem is simply that the whole thing is completely arbitrary. You want the uS to score low? Then just pick the things you don't like about the US that can be connected to peace and weigh them highly.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:28PM

    by Thexalon (636) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:28PM (#79760)

    Then just pick the things you don't like about the US that can be connected to peace and weigh them highly.

    I'm really curious what standards of peace you would use that would cause the US to be ranked highly as a promoter of peace.

    You can argue that the wars waged by the US were fully justified, or that they prevented a greater war from happening. But to claim that a nation that is fighting a bunch of wars right now is more peaceful than Switzerland (who last fought a war in 1847) is simply silly.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.