2008 Global Peace Index Rankings

The 2008 rankings of the Global Peace Index were released yesterday. Backed by distinguished individuals such as Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this new index now in its second year ranks countries by their relative peacefulness. It takes into account 24 internal and external factors, including levels of violence and UN activities. For the nerdy readers that care, you can check out the methodology of the study here.
Here is the overall map of their findings (Blue for most peaceful; red for least peaceful):


According to the rankings, the top 10 "non-peaceful," violent countries are (in order):

1. Iraq
2. Somalia
3. Sudan
4. Afghanistan
5. Israel
6. Chad
7. Central African Republic
8. N. Korea
9. Lebanon
10. Russia

Though the first nine make sense, as the Foreign Passport posted, is Russia really more violent than conflict-torn countries such as Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Colombia? Some of the reasons the index states for this are: high military spending, booming arms sales, poor relations with its neighbors, high scores for homicides, jailed population, distrust among citizens, and violent crime. Though all these factors do ring true, from a non-technical viewpoint, it just seems odd that other regimes that thrive on violent repression are more "peaceful".

Other interesting tidbits:

• The US is ranked far from the top of most peaceful countries, ranking 97th out of the 140 countries. (e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan)
  
• The UK is one of the least peaceful nations in Europe.
  
• Iceland is the most peaceful nation in the world.
  
• The majority of the countries in the world have slightly improved since last year.