Azernews.Az

The world became less peaceful for the second consecutive year, according to the fourth annual Global Peace Index (GPI) published this week.
As the global economy continues to falter, this year's data shows an intensification of conflicts and growing instability linked to the downturn that began in 2008, with several countries seeing sharp increases in homicides, violent demonstrations and fear of crime, says the GPI, which researched 149 countries. Iraq was the least peaceful country, rated 149th, with the index saying that violence escalated in the country after the withdrawal of US troops from its big cities.
Somalia ranked 148th due to the civil war and piracy. It is followed by Afghanistan, where fighting still rages between NATO and the Taliban.
In Africa, Sudan was rated 146th due to ethnic stand-off. Pakistan, which is combating terrorism and radical militants, ranked 145th, while Israel, which is pursuing a blockade in Gaza, ranked 144th.
Russia, which had launched a brief war with Georgia and has not altered its tough policy towards Tbilisi, was rated 143rd, followed by Georgia, rated 142nd.
Armenia, which occupies part of Azerbaijani territory, has been rated as more peaceful than its South Caucasus neighbor. Armenia was rated 113th, while Azerbaijan ranked 119th.
The study alleged that more peaceful than Azerbaijan are also Turkmenistan (117th), Uzbekistan (110th), Belarus (105th), and Iran (104th).
Syria, Georgia, the Philippines, Russia and Cyprus were this year's biggest fallers.
Top-ranked New Zealand was one of only three countries in the top ten to improve in peacefulness in the 2010 Index.
Western Europe continues to be the most peaceful region, with the majority of the countries ranking in the top 20. All five Scandinavian nations rank in the top ten; however, Denmark dropped five spots to No.7 because of decrease in respect for human rights and continuing involvement in Afghanistan.
Iceland moved into the No. 2 spot as the country's economy stabilized after falling to No. 4 in last year's ranking. Also termed as peaceful nations were Japan, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland, and Sweden.
The United States improved its 2010 score but slipped three spots down the index due to the addition of new countries and the re-rating of the number of heavy weapons. Methodological changes aside, this year the U.S. saw its biggest improvement in peacefulness over the four years of the study through a decrease in political instability and in the number of deaths from external conflict.
The only study to quantify global peacefulness, the GPI is produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). This year it has expanded to rank 149 independent states. Composed of 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators, it combines internal and external factors ranging from military expenditure to relations with neighboring countries and levels of violent crime.
The GPI was founded by Killelea, an Australian international technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. It forms part of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank dedicated to the research and education of the relationship between economics, business and peace. An international panel of experts in the study of peace advises on the identification and weighting of indicators in the GPI, which is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.*