The Civic Platform - A Political Journal of Ideas and Analysis

MORE AGGRESSION, MORE HOMICIDES

US more violent than Nicaragua, Libya and Serbia

Research ranks United States as more violent
than Serbia; Iceland rated most peaceful
By MEERA SELVA
The Associated Press Tuesday, 20 May 2008

LONDON — The United States is ranked as a little less
peaceful than it was last year and a lot more violent than
Kuwait, Nicaragua and Libya, according to the Global
Peace Index released Tuesday by Britain’s Economist
Intelligence Unit.

Icelandic countryside scene

The index, which ranks a number of internal and external
factors, found Scandinavian countries among the most
peaceful, taking the top three spots.

Canada came in at No. 11, one spot ahead of Switzerland
and two ahead of Sweden, which came in 13th.

That compared with Britain at 49th spot — just below
Panama — and the United States at 97.

The index, now in its second year, ranks 140 countries
according to their relative states of peace, based on
factors such as military expenditure, respect for human
rights and the homicide rate. Unsurprisingly, Israel, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and
Iraq were at the bottom of the list.

This year, Iceland is voted the most peaceful place,
beating last year’s winner Norway, which came in third.
Denmark was No. 2.
The idea for the index came from Steve Killelea, an
Australian businessman and philanthropist who wanted
to identify just what creates a peaceful country.

Criteria
He asked the Economist Intelligence Unit to look at a range of variables, from levels of homicides per 100,000 people — which drags America down and boosts Denmark — to corruption and access to primary education.

“The US does so badly because has the highest
proportion of jailed people in the world. And it has high
levels of homicide and high potential for terrorist
attacks,” Killelea told The Associated Press.

“Its overall score is a reflection of that. The index is not making any moral statements by the ranking.”
Andrew Williamson, global director of client research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said he hoped the index would be used by other researchers to look into why some countries stay more peaceful than others.

“The index is trying to measure the absence of peace. We are not looking at explanatory factors why some countries are more peaceful than others. We are inviting others to do this analysis themselves,” Williamson said.

Top 10

The Top 10 most peaceful countries:

1. Iceland

2. Denmark

3. Norway

4. New Zealand

5. Japan.

6. Ireland

7. Portugal

8. Finland

9. Luxembourg

10. Austria

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/research-ranks-united-states-as-more/n20080520123409990027

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