The Institute for Economics & Peace has recently posted its fourth annual world peace index, entitled, "2011 Global Peace Index." The index presents an impressively precise and statistically comprehensive picture of the state of world peace. It assigns a number, a score if you will, to the level of peacefulness in each of 153 nations based on 23 "peace indicators" and an additional 32 "related indicators." This is something worth spending a little time studying.The 2011 index shows, for example, that Iceland is the most peaceful nation on the Earth with a score of 1.148. Japan is the highest ranking major power, standing third in the overall rankings with a score of 1.287. In North America, Canada stands way out in first with a score of 1.355 (8th in the world), the U.S. lags far behind at 2.063 (82nd), and Mexico comes in at 2.362 (121st). Western Europe continues to be the most peaceful region in the world while sub-Saharan Africa remains the least peaceful. Somalia at 3.379 is, unsurprisingly, the most violent nation on the planet.
Two key findings worth lingering over are: first, for the third year in a row the world's overall peace index score has dropped. The primary reason has nothing to do with armed conflict between nations but, rather, is caused by the growing discontent of people in many nations with dictatorial governments. The "Arab Spring" is the most important example. In an almost counter-intuitive way, then, the rise in violence is, at least in part, a "good" thing—or, at least, the motivation and spirit motivating it is a positive one.
Second, the GPI findings estimate that,
"If the world had been 25% more peaceful over the past year the global economy would have reaped an additional economic benefit of just over US$2 trillion. This amount would pay for the 2% of global GDP per annum investment estimated by the Stern Review to avoid the worst effects of climate change, cover the cost of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, eliminate the public debt of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, and address the one-off rebuilding costs of the most expensive natural disaster in history – the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami."Peace, that is, is a whole lot cheaper than violence!
The index has its critics, and inevitably choosing other indicators would lead to different rankings of nations. One might esp. question, furthermore, how peaceful is the "peace" the index purports to measure. For example, last year in the 2010 index, Libya ranked 56th in the world, well ahead of the United States at 85th. In the 2011 list, however, Libya has now dropped precipitously to 143rd in the world. Before the events of the "Arab Spring," Libya was a "peaceful dictatorship," which is surely a contradiction in terms. While it may be asking too much for any index to weigh the factors of inner frustration with dictatorial government, this example serves to remind us that the peace index has its limitations in measuring true peacefulness in a nation.
Still, in general, the index does reflect global realities that we can't deny, such as the relative peacefulness of Europe or the the fact that Canada is a whole lot more peaceful than the United States. From a theological perspective, indeed, one could (perhaps playfully) consider the GPI as a kind of a first step toward a "Kingdom Index" that measures the success of the Holy Spirit's ongoing quest for peace on Earth and goodwill among nations, that is the Kingdom of God.
