On June 2nd I attended the release of the 2009 Global Peace Index at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Global Peace Index is the worlds only measure of countries in their varying states of peace. The index was created in order to further the understanding of what nurtures and sustains peace and to measure the progress of a countries and the international system.
The state of the worlds peace is measured by a country to country basis and in various ways, including varying states of:
Social and Political Peace (i.e. degree of non-violent conflict, Militarization, Organized conflict, Number of displaced people, Number of external and internal conflicts, Respect for human rights, Social unrest (i.e. violent protest), Political instability, Number of deaths due to conflict, Potential for terrorist attacks.
The Global Peace Index (GPI) was started in 2007 by Clyde McConaghy and Steve Killelea. Each year since then they have gathered a panel of Peace and International Relations specialists together to study and speak about the state of the Global Peace Index (GPI) and what that means for the world. This year at the 2009 GPI the hot topic was the economy and how that has effected the state of the worlds peace. Below is the world chart for the 2009 GPI results:
There is also a detailed list of each countries rankings with a break down of how they achieved their standing here.
Something else that is very important when measuring peace is to examine each countries “drivers” of peace or important social and political matters that are being handled in a manner that keeps and sustains peace, these are:
1) Well functioning governments
2) Freedom of the press
3) Regional integration
4) Life expectancy
5) Participation in primary school
6) Women in parliament
Countries that have well sustained “drivers” have higher standing on the GPI scale.
The distinguished panel for the 2009 GPI made some very profound remarks about what needs to be done in terms of furthering a peaceful world such as, “All social issues can be solved with peaceful groundings, peace is quintessential to survival.”
Darfur, Sudan and the Global Peace Index
Sudan’s state of peace as measured by the GPI is at Very Low, reasons for this include their level of organized conflict, number of deaths and human rights violations. In order to become higher on the scale or to increase their standings of peace, Darfur as in all regions of the world that have conflict need to follow what the GPI scale describes as some of the best ways to keep and sustain peace which is having a strong economy, education and central government.
To learn more about the Global Peace Index visit their website.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: Darfur, Global Peace, International Peace, Peace, Peace Index, Sudan
