World Citizen Blog

USA Is One Of The Worst Countries In The Global Peace Index

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The U.S., to many (inside the country, at least) the land of freedom and opportunity, is also a land of violence. According to a study published by the Economist Intelligence Unit — EIU, the renowned think tank associated with the Economist, called the Global Peace Index — GPI, the U.S. ranks 96 out of 121 countries in a ranking that combines a number of data to measure the internal and external peace of each nation.

Things are not going well for notable U.S. allies as well. Israel ranks 119th, while Colombia and Lebanon, two countries that have been receiving substantial American help (politically and financially) for a while now, rank 116th and 114th, respectively.

The study took in consideration things such as the number of victims in internal and external conflicts, recent wars in which the countries were involved, military expenditure, relationships with neighboring countries, social tensions among the population and respect for human rights. Some of these categories in particular might have brought down the ranking of certain countries, such as weapons exports, which might explain, at least partially, why France ranks 34th, the U.K., 49th and China, 60th.