RI ranks ahead of U.S. and Russia on Global Peace Index

Veeramalla Anjaiah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 05/21/2008 10:44 AM | World

Indonesia is a much more peaceful country than global powers the United States and Russia, an annual study on global peace revealed in London on Tuesday.

With peace in Aceh, improving human rights conditions throughout the country, regional terrorism under control and an absence of any kind of major violence, Indonesia ranked 68th on the 2008 Global Peace Index (GPI) of 140 countries.

The two-year-old GPI, brainchild of Australian technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea, is drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent think tank, in association with the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit.

"The world appears to be a marginally more peaceful place this year," Killelea told AFP in London.

"This is encouraging, but it takes small steps by individual countries for the world to make greater strides on the road to peace," he said.

The United States, the world's only remaining superpower, is often touted as a staunch defender of world peace, democracy and human rights. But the GPI study shows it in a different light.

The United States, which spends $1.3 billion per day on its military, scored very poorly, ranking lower than Rwanda, Syria, Cuba and Libya. It came in at 97 on the list.

In 2008, the U.S. government allocated $481.4 billion for its annual defense budget -- an 11.3 percent increase from the $439.3 billion it allocated in 2006. Present global military spending stands at $1.47 trillion.

Another factor contributing to its weak showing was the fact the United States has more people in prisons than any other state in the world.

Former superpower Russia came in at 131 on the list. Despite improving conditions in the troubled province of Chechnya, Russia in entangled in disputes with several neighboring countries.

China ranked ahead of Indonesia at 67, and India came in at 107.

Smaller countries, especially from Europe, rated well on the GPI. Iceland tops the list as the most peaceful country, with Denmark and Norway taking second and third spots. Two countries from the Asia-Pacific region, New Zealand and Japan -- the only country to suffer a nuclear bombing -- placed 4th and 5th, respectively.

Iraq rounded out the bottom of the list for the second year in a row. Other conflict-riddled states such as Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Israel and Chad came in just ahead of Iraq.

The GPI rates each nation on a range of potential drivers or determinants of peace, including a nation's relations with its neighbors, arms sales and foreign troop deployments, levels of democracy and transparency, education and respect for human rights.

It also considers data on a country's crime rate, its prison population and the potential for terrorism within its borders.

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