Oman retains 74th position in this year's Global Peace Index
Date
6/14/2016 5:36:10 AM
(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat-
The 2016 Global Peace Index (GPI) shows the world has become less peaceful in the last year, reinforcing the underlying trend of declining peace over the last decade.
Published on June 8, the report shows that Middle East and Africa (MENA) continues to be the least peaceful region in the world, with Oman ranked 74 out of the 163 nations included. The impact of violence on global economy totalled US$13.6tn, while the number of refugees and displaced touched approximately 60mn between 2007 and 2016, nearly one per cent of the world''s population. The score for MENA, the least peaceful region in the world in last year''s report, dropped further as regional conflicts intensified, dragging down global peacefulness. So intense is the current concentration of violence and conflict in MENA that, when considered separately, the rest of the world''s average peace levels improved. Three of the five biggest declines in peace occurred in the region including Yemen, Libya and Bahrain, the report stated. In the GCC, Qatar is on top (34) followed by Kuwait (51), UAE (61), Oman (74), Saudi Arabia (129) and Bahrain (132). Iceland was once again named the world''s most peaceful country, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal. Syria was again named the least peaceful country, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. The annual index by international think-tank the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crimes, countries'' levels of militarisation and weapon imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame. Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman, IEP said, ''As internal conflicts in MENA become more entrenched, external parties are increasingly becoming more involved and the potential for indirect or ''war by proxy'' between nation states is rising. This was already evident in Syria with the conflict between the [Bashar] Assad regime and multiple non-state actors, and is now spilling into countries such as Yemen. There is a broader proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and more recently both the US and Russia have increased their level of involvement.'' The study, finds that while 81 countries improved, the deterioration in another 79 outweighed these gains, meaning that peace declined at a faster rate than in the previous year. Despite this some of the most peaceful countries are now recording historically high levels of peace. The economic impact of violence on the global economy totalled US$13.6tn or 13.3 per cent of gross world product, equivalent to 11 times the size of global foreign direct investment, the report stated.