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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Canada, Australia, Europe, and Japan Are Blue States

 

From the website Vision of Humanity,
The Global Peace Index is a ground-breaking milestone in the study of peace. It is the first time that an Index has been created that ranks the nations of the world by their peacefulness and identified some of the drivers of that peace. 121 countries have been ranked by their ‘absence of violence’, using metrics that combine both internal and external factors. Most people understand the absence of violence as an indicator of peace. This definition also allows for the measuring of peacefulness within, as well as between, nations.

Peace is a powerful concept. However, the notion of peace, and its value in the world economy, is poorly understood. Historically, peace has been seen as something won in war, or else as an altruistic ideal. There are competing definitions of peace, and most research into peace is, in fact, the study of violent conflict.

Vision of Humanity contains the results from the Global Peace Index and other material of interest on peace. It also contains a section on institutions that need help to fund peace-related initiatives. Over time this source will be updated to combine more relevant material that will demonstrate the linkages between peace and sustainability.
[Hat Tip: John M. Lynch]

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

don't forget Chile

Anonymous said...

Belgium is #11~
I call bullshit on us having the same Corruption Perception Index as the US, though. And on the US having 0 paramilitary personnel per 100,000 citizens.
And much of the Democracy and Transparency section for the US seems... off.

Torbjörn Larsson said...

It is nice, but also sad, that the up-and-coming superpower China is in better shape than US and Russia.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for drawing attention to this. As an Australian I should be happy but the result while firmly based (check the site) misses out attitudinal dimensions. The Australian Government has deliberately set out to fight in Iraq, divide the place with racial tensions and ignore the civil liberties of our citizens in Guantanamo all for purely domestic political advantage.
Somewhat outweighs political stability and the other indicators.

Anonymous said...

New Zealand is also beautifully blue.

Just sayin'.