The average level of global peacefulness has declined, with 79 nations deteriorating in last year’s Global Peace Index.
The average level of global peacefulness has deteriorated for the ninth consecutive year, with 79 countries scoring lower in the 17th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI), the world’s leading measure of peacefulness.
Published by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the report revealed that Iceland remains the most peaceful country since 2008 followed by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and Austria.
Afghanistan is the least peaceful country followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Overall, the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42 per cent, making it the thirteenth deterioration in peacefulness in the last 15 years.
The GPI measures peacefulness across three domains – safety and security, ongoing conflict and militarisation – covering 163 countries.
Founder and Executive Chairman of IEP Steve Killelea said that the 2023 GPI highlights the contrasting dynamics of militarisation and conflict.
On one hand, the majority of countries are decreasing their reliance on the military, while on the other, an increasing number of conflicts are becoming internationalised.
Conflict deaths are the highest since the Rwandan genocide which had over 800,000 deaths and sparked a wave of global action.
“After the Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syrian wars and now the Ukraine war it is obvious that the most powerful armies cannot prevail against a well-resourced local population. War has become mostly unwinnable, and an increasingly heavy economic burden.”
Ukraine recorded the largest deterioration with a decline of 13 per cent in the overall score, placing it at the 157th on the Index. Libya improved the most in overall peacefulness, improving by seven per cent and rising 14 places to 137th.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remains the least peaceful region despite recording the second largest improvement in peacefulness after North America. Improvement in the region was primarily driven by the Ongoing conflict domain, with terrorism impact, internal conflicts fought, and deaths from internal conflict all improving.
The region is home to four of the 10 least peaceful countries in the world.
Meanwhile, Europe remains the most peaceful region in the world, home to seven of the 10 most peaceful countries.
However, it deteriorated on all three GPI domains over the past year, as tensions between European countries and Russia escalate. Europe is now less peaceful than it was 15 years ago.
Among the 23 indicators in the GPI, only seven improved while the remaining 16 deteriorated.
Violent demonstrations and external conflicts fought are the two indicators with the largest deterioration since 2008.
The increase in external conflicts fought reflects more external actors becoming involved in internal conflicts in other countries, read the report.
While the world has become less peaceful over the past 15 years, the report highlighted that there have been some notable improvements in peace.
The average country score on the Militarisation domain improved by 6.2 per cent since 2008, with the largest improvements in UN peacekeeping funding, the size of the armed forces and the stock of heavy weapons in many countries – only the weapons imports indicator has declined since 2008.
Meanwhile, the Safety and security domain deteriorated by 5.4 per cent, and the Ongoing conflict domain deteriorated by 14 per cent between 2008 and 2023.
Of the 11 indicators in the Safety and security domain, nine deteriorated and two improved.
The largest deterioration was recorded in the violent demonstrations indicator, with average scores on this indicator declining in every region around the world. The homicide rate indicator had the largest improvement, with declining rates in 104 countries since 2008.
As for the ongoing conflict domain, all six of its indicators deteriorated. In total, 99 countries recorded a decline on this domain while 52 recorded an improvement. Ten countries recorded no change since 2008.
The last few years have observed a shift in the downward trend of conflict-related deaths, with total deaths rising 45 per cent between 2020 and 2021 and the most recent surge primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of deaths over the past year has increased by 96 per cent due to conflicts in Ukraine and Ethiopia.
The report also notes the widening gap between the least and the most peaceful countries. Since 2008, the 25 least peaceful countries deteriorated on average by 9.8 per cent, while the 25 most peaceful countries improved by 0.1 per cent. – Aqilah Rahman
