AlterNet reports:
Most peaceful countries"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].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday August 10 2014, @08:28PM
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.