{"id":92,"date":"2013-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yule-tide.generalsemiotics.net\/index.php\/2013\/06\/14\/post-85-armenia-belarus-china-papua-new-guinea\/"},"modified":"2013-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T00:00:00","slug":"post-85-armenia-belarus-china-papua-new-guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/2013\/06\/14\/post-85-armenia-belarus-china-papua-new-guinea\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-85: Armenia, Belarus, China, Papua New Guinea…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nQ.<\/strong><\/font> What do Armenia, Belarus, China, and Papua New Guinea have in common?<\/strong>
<\/span>A.<\/strong><\/font><\/span> All were found to have “peacefulness levels” about equal to the USA’s.\n<\/div>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 World Rank \/ Peace Index \/ Country<\/em><\/font>
<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 97th \t\t\t— 2.12 — Belarus \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 98th — \t\t\t2.12 \t\t\t— Armenia
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 99th — \t\t\t2.13 — United States <\/strong>
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 99th — 2.13 \t\t\t— Papua New Guinea
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 101st — \t\t\t2.14 \t\t\t— China \t\t \t <\/div>\n
From the Global Peace Index 2013<\/a><\/strong>. The scores range from from 1.0 (most “peaceful”) to 5.0 (least “peaceful”), and are calculated from a wide range of things, like crime, %-of-population in jail, police presence, use of state terror, “militarization” of society, weapons trade, relations with neighbors, involvement in wars [foreign or civil], political stability, etc. (See here for the data<\/a> from the organization that calculated the scores).<\/p>\n

<\/span>Of the 162 countries analyzed (all the big ones), the USA tied with Papua New Guinea for 99th safest. USA’s rank was depressed due to an especially high “militarization” score. The USA’s jailed-population score is also very high, at 4.5, which is second only to North Korea’s 5.0 (the maximum possible score).\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Picture\"<\/a> <\/p>\n
Global Peace Index Map (From here<\/a>). Click to Expand<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/span>Peace Index Score 2013<\/strong><\/font>
\t \t \t\t \t\t\t. .1st — \t\t\t1.16 — \t\t\tIceland \t\t \t\t \t\t\t[Most peaceful country on Earth]
<\/span>2nd — \t\t\t1.21 —\u00a0\t\t\tDenmark \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>3rd — \t\t\t1.24 —\t\t\tNew Zealand
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t4th — \t\t\t1.25 \t\t\t— Austria
<\/span>5th — \t\t\t1.27 \t\t\t— Switzerland
<\/span> 6th — \t\t\t1.29 — \t\t\tJapan \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>7th — \t\t\t1.30 \t\t\t— Finland \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>8th — \t\t\t1.31 \t\t\t— Canada
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t9th — \t\t\t1.32 \t\t\t— Sweden
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t10th– \t\t\t1.34 \t\t\t— Belgium
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t11th– \t\t\t1.36 \t\t\t— Norway \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>12th– \t\t\t1.37 —\t\t\tIreland \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>13th– \t\t\t1.37 —\t\t\tSlovenia
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t14th– \t\t\t1.40 \t\t\t— Czech Republic \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>15th– \t\t\t1.43 — \t\t\tGermany \t\t \t
………<\/span>………
47th– 1.82 —<\/span> South Korea
………<\/span>………
97th \t\t\t— 2.12 — Belarus \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
98th — \t\t\t2.12 \t\t\t— Armenia
99th — \t\t\t2.13 — United States <\/strong>
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t99th — 2.13 \t\t\t— Papua New Guinea
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t101st — \t\t\t2.14 \t\t\t— China \t\t \t
………………
\t \t \t\t \t\t\t150th- \t\t\t2.73 \t\t\t— Cote d’ Ivoire
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t150th- \t\t\t2.73 \t\t\t— Israel
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t152nd- \t\t\t2.75 — \t\t\tYemen
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t153rd- \t\t\t3.03 \t\t\t— Central African Republic \t\t \t
\t \t \t\t \t\t\t154th- \t\t\t3.04 — North Korea
<\/span> \t\t \t\t \t\t\t155th- \t\t\t3.06 \t\t\t— Russia
<\/span>………………
<\/span>159th- \t\t\t3.25 —\t\t\tIraq \t\t \t\t \t\t\t
<\/span>160th- \t\t\t3.39 \t\t\t— Syria
<\/span>160th- \t\t\t3.39 —<\/span> Somalia
<\/span>\t\t \t\t \t\t\t162nd- \t\t\t3.44 — Afghanistan \t\t \t [Least peaceful country on Earth]
________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

What exactly does it mean that Papua New Guinea has an identical “peace score” to the USA? Does it mean people are equally safe in both places? No, because crime is just one parameter of many. (Papua New Guinea is actually much more dangerous in terms of crime, I see from the data.) Maybe the data behind the peace-score is so wide-ranging as to be useless, in the end. <\/span><\/p>\n

Q. What do Armenia, Belarus, China, and Papua New Guinea have in common?A. All were found to have “peacefulness levels” about equal to the USA’s. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 World Rank \/ Peace Index \/ Country\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 97th — 2.12 — Belarus \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 98th — 2.12 — Armenia \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 99th — 2.13 — United States \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 99th — 2.13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

<\/span>A<\/span> commenter points out<\/a> out a methodological problem in line with what I mean: “<\/em><\/span>The idea of ranking nation-states’ contribution (or lack of it) to global peace, when the relative military power of those states ranges from Nauru to United States, is…obviously idiotic…” — <\/em>Actually, Nauru is not one of the analyzed countries, but his point is valid. USA’s Militarization does depress its score. It’s easy for Iceland to get near 1.0 on militarization, because it has no standing army<\/em>. Of the top 15 (above), most have benefited, for nearly 70 years now (after 1945), from the USA guaranteeing their security — via military aid, troop presences in Europe, and NATO Article 5<\/a>. On top of this, none of the top 15 (possibly excluding Japan [NK] and Slovenia [the Yugoslav wars]), that I can tell, have had even the faintest pretense of a real external security threat after 1990.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"