Peace index puts BD ahead of India, Pakistan

Bangladesh is well ahead of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in terms of 'state of peace' though Nepal and Bhutan took the leading role as peaceful states in the South Asia, according to 2014 Global Peace Index (GPI) released recently, reports UNB.
It described Bangladesh's state of peace as 'medium' with securing 98th position (score 2.106), among the categories very high, high, low, very low and not included.
The GPI is the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). It gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarisation in 162 countries by taking into account 22 indicators.
However, another South Asian country - the Maldives - was not included in the report.
According to the report, Bhutan is the most peaceful country among the South Asian states with the position of 16th in the index and scoring 1.422 under the 'very high' category. Nepal secured 76th position scoring 1.989 with getting its position in 'high' peace category, the report mentioned.
Neighbouring India's position was 143rd scoring 2.571 but fell in 'low' peace category. On the other hand, Afghanistan (161) and Pakistan (154) were placed in 'very low' category of peace status.
South Asia remains at the bottom of the overall regional rankings; however its score did improve more substantially than any other region.
All countries in South Asia improved their overall scores, especially their domestic peace.
The recent elections in Afghanistan proceeded without major incident in early April, with its political terror score improving, however being partly offset by increased terrorist activity and military expenditure.
Other improvements are in the levels of political terror, as well as in the number of refugees and displaced people in Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
Iceland, Denmark and Austria were ranked first, second and third respectively in terms of state of peace, according to the report.
The 10 countries most likely to deteriorate in peace in the next two years are Zambia, Haiti, Argentina, Chad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nepal, Burundi, Georgia, Liberia and Qatar.
Global violence impacted the global economy by US$9.8 trillion or 11.3% of GDP in the last year, an increase of US$179 billion YOY, through upward revisions of China's military expenditure and the number and intensity of internal conflicts.
Syria displaces Afghanistan as the world's least peaceful nation while Iceland maintains its status as the most peaceful country in the world.
Georgia showed the largest improvement in peace levels, while South Sudan experienced the largest drop and now ranks as the third least peaceful country.
Steve Killelea, founder and Executive Chairman of the IEP observed, "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.
"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."