Doha: Qatar has retained its top rank on the Global Peace Index (GPI) for 2013 in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region for the fifth time in a row.
At the same time the region continues to be affected by the fallout of the Arab Spring, the resulting turmoil, which has had a profound impact on the global peace index this year.
The annual report published by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), ranks 162 countries by measuring their level of safety and security, extent of domestic or international conflict and the degree of militarisation.
Some GCC countries also dropped from their rankings compared to last year, which according to GPI, is due to internal conflicts, strained relations with regional powers and some countries ramping up their military spending.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Oman were ranked second, third and fourth respectively, with Syria ranked as the least peaceful country in the region. The 2013 index shows that the world has become less peaceful.
The decline in global peace has been largely due to an increase in military expenditure and political and security instability, in addition to a rise in the intensity of internal conflicts in different countries.
Qatar saw an improvement in its score on some indicators such as corruption (6.8/10) compared to (7.2/10) in 2012 and media freedom (32.9/100) compared to (42/100) in 2012.
The GPI is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness.
It is the product of Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data collected and collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The list was launched first in May 2007, then continued yearly. It is claimed to be the first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness.
The Peninsula
