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The Peace Dividend
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:03 am
by Gob
The planet is not a peaceful place, and the U.S. no longer ranks in the top 100 most peaceful nations. It stands at No. 101, according to the annual Global Peace Index, a complex analysis that quantifies the relative peacefulness of 162 nations.
Released Wednesday, the eighth annual assessment is data-driven and measures such things as internal crime statistics, political forces, refugee activity, population trends and other factors — including terrorism, the number of homicides and economic conditions.
The most peaceful spot? Iceland, followed by Denmark and Austria.
The three least peaceful countries are South Sudan, Afghanistan and Syria, at the very bottom of the list.
Money is a key factor. The index affixes a price on the absence of peace, noting that it cost $9.46 trillion worldwide to “contain and deal with the consequences of global violence.”
And Americans pay their share.
“The economic impact of containing the levels of violence cost the U.S. economy $1.7 trillion, or more than 10 percent of the GDP in 2013, translating to more than $5,455 per U.S. citizen,” the index stated.
“Despite a scaled-back military presence overseas, the country’s high degree of militarization, unmatched incarceration rate and an increase in the impact felt from terrorism caused the U.S. to descend into triple digits,” the research said.
Things are tough all over, though.
“Many macro factors have driven the deterioration in peace over the last seven years, including the continued economic repercussions of the global financial crisis, the reverberations of the Arab Spring, and the continued spread of terrorism. As these effects are likely to continue into the near future, a strong rebound in peace is unlikely,” said Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Australian-based interest group behind the research.
“This is resulting in very real costs to the world economy. Increases in the global economic impact of violence and its containment are equivalent to 19 percent of global economic growth from 2012 to 2013. To put this in perspective, this is around $1,350 per person. The danger is that we fall into a negative cycle: Low economic growth leads to higher levels of violence, the containment of which produces lower economic growth,” Mr. Killelea said
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 3:38 pm
by Big RR
I'm surprised the US ever ranked in the top 100; we've never really been a peaceful society and there aren't many times in my life that I can recall we weren't involved in some sort of "war"; indeed, that threat has been used again and again to keep the populace in line.
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:14 pm
by Long Run
Do these surveys come from the same place as the Facebook "Which U.S. President Are You?" or "What Is Your Spiritual Power?"? All very scientific and almost as valuable as Farmville or Candy Crush Saga.
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:49 pm
by Scooter
Here is the report. The indicators, their defintions and weights, data sources and scoring criteria begin on page 92.
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:09 am
by Lord Jim
The whole damn thing is absurd..
We're "the cop on the beat"...that is the historical role we are meant to play...
To be quite frank, I'm sick and tired of hearing about how we "can't be the world's policeman"...
Like hell we can't...
That's what we're supposed to do...
Will the world be a better place if this role is left to The People's Republic Of China?
I think not...
The world needs a "policeman"...
and we're it...
The world is full of second story men countries, and lowlife burglar countries, (and now ISIS, attempting to establish a terrorist Caliphate regime in Iraq and Syria) countries who'd go upside your head with a bag of lug wrenches and steal your wallet as soon as look at you...(to draw an analogy...)
With all these bad actors about, the world clearly needs a "policeman"....
And we're best suited for the part...
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:00 pm
by rubato
The "peace dividend" is what everybody else gets because the "Pax Americana" has kept the world safer and freer than in any previous period of history. And what we pay for.
yrs,
rubato
Re: The Peace Dividend
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:41 am
by Scooter
There are perhaps four indicators that are affected by the U.S.'s status as the world's policeman - military expenditures, military personnel, nuclear capability and transfers of conventional arms to other states. These indicators comprise just under half of the "external peace" weighting, which in turn accounts for 40% of the total index. There are several "internal peace" indicators that probably had more of an impact, like rates of homicide and other violent crime, both actual and perceived, the policing resources needed to deal with them, incarceration rates, ease of access to small arms, where the U.S. would score significantly "less peaceful" than most countries with comparable political, social and economic development.