Global Peace Index

[Will9]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
The results seem very believable to me. I don't think anybody would be complaining if the US had a higher ranking...

We wouldn't be complaining if the US had better ranking because the ranking is biased to give the US a worse ranking than we deserve. Part of it is based on defence spending. The country with the worlds largest GDP will have a high defense spending. Putting defense spending in just gives a larger country worse score. Size gives no conection to peacfulness. Large countries will also be involed in more UN peace-keeping missions. To see our reason to complain now?

[Colonâ„¢]

to the EIU and The Economist for pissing off all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons.

[Odin]

looks like BS for use by Europeans to pat themselves on the back.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Odin
looks like BS for use by Europeans to pat themselves on the back.

I am not sure; the whole thing is of no use. The guys who did that ignore "si vis pacem para bellum".

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Barnabas
Maybe the USA score is affected by the Iraq war, while Mexico has the advantage of not being at war with any country.

I think the USA has quite high homocide rates for a first world country, some cities very high like Washington.

Homocides?

[Sirotnikov]

Some of the scores and categories are bullcrap.
It is unclear whether a higher or lower score is better in a certain category.

Some of the reasons behind the scores are striking.

Apparently Israel has more internal security officers and paramilitary than Iran....

Which is nonsense, considering Israel is a democracy with a weak and small police force, while the Iranian regime is half autocratic with half its military forces dedicated to guarding the regime.

I have no idea where did they pull the data for some of the scores from.

It's not that I disagree that Israel is very unpeaceful. But its relative place in the chart is totally unfounded.

95% of people live it security and peace. Which is more than you can say about a huge number of places in Africa, some failing balcan states, places bordering with russia in asia, or south american drug-lord areas.

[Qwertqwert]

What's going on in Russia that's making it 4th to last? How can it be nearly as bad as Sudan and Iraq?

[Meticulous Man]

We wouldn't be complaining if the US had better ranking because the ranking is biased to give the US a worse ranking than we deserve. Part of it is based on defence spending. The country with the worlds largest GDP will have a high defense spending. Putting defense spending in just gives a larger country worse score. Size gives no conection to peacfulness. Large countries will also be involed in more UN peace-keeping missions. To see our reason to complain now?

What do you think would be a fair ranking for the US then? I don't think the US exactly can pride itself on being very peaceful. That said, I don't deny that the US faces geopolitical circumstances that differ from those of many other countries...

[Meticulous Man]

The point of the study as I understood it is to point out the countries that have succeeded in creating stable relationships with their neighbors and achieving absence of violence inside their territories, and if someone would claim that the US under Bush is some kind of a model country in peace building, I'd say that the person must be on something...

[alva]

Woohoo! We beat the Dutch!!!

[Dis]

I actually believe the U.S. deserves to be that low. Even if we are the good guys (which isn't true), war is war. And we aren't a peaceful nation.

[Straybow]

Being "peaceful' when you should fight evil is no virtue.

[Barnabas]

I found this which compares the city of Buenos Aires with USA cities with a population over 250.000
(homicides rate)




USA has some cities with narco-colombian homicide rates

[Qwertqwert]

Can someone explain what's happening in Russia making it 4th to last?

[Will9]

Originally posted by Qwertqwert
Can someone explain what's happening in Russia making it 4th to last?

High Homocide rates I think.