Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...ace-index-2011

How come Qatar and Japan are more peaceful than Switzerland? For me this is the most peaceful country in the world. I sometimes even think everybody is dead on Sundays

Yet another "index" published by some "research institute"

Means nothing except another thing to put in the (e)paper

All those of at least up to position 25 share RANK ONE.

And the Czech Rep on no. 5, of course, the land of phlegmatic Bohemians, hahaha...Fab.

And 3 of my fav countries on top, too, New Zealand, Iceland, Denmark, ooooh.

If they take hanging racists posters as anti peace, then I guess 16th position makes sense.

Iceland... peaceful... WTF? Like those volcano erruptions were an accident...

That' just nature rebelling against Bjork's cheese telling her she should have stayed in Sugar Cubes

Methinks they are taking the peace

As a foreigner, I honestly just don't care

Does getting mugged at the train station in CH factor in?

Naw. I think you might be told it was furiners, anyways..

I wonder how they calculated the scores.

Denmark was in Iraq, Afghanistan, and is also in Libya. In Libya they contribute with 4 planes (plus 2 in reserve) and in relation to a population of 5M people, that is more than most others. and then a 4th place

Doc.

Because they chip in with immigrant soldiers...Swedes I reckon so No, Danes do not participate in any wars

out of the top of the list
Iceland, Denmark, Czechia, Norway, Canada, Belgium, and Germany
are NATO countries and only
Austria, Finland, Ireland, and Sweden
are neutral countries

which shows that this Institute regards NATO-membership as a point in favour of being peaceful


and Costa Rica without an army is far behind heavily overarmed Switzerland


I can only assume that this institute has some rather weird criteria

I'm curious about the criteria as well. Their "data download" is essentially useless.

It's probably due to all the mobbing and squabbles they have with expats at work.

true Switzerland would have been the first, but then they saw our forum and how we fight and complain, so they ranked it behind

no no, they just by chance erupt since Iceland got into financial trouble ! What a coincidence

How come the Hellenic volcanoes aren't erupting? It just shows how useless the Greek government is.

Exactly Apparently Greek guys are not paying enough attention to Volcanoes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index

I think it's typical for such rankings to not fully and transparently disclose the criteria. But from what I could gather CH ranks relatively low because

-Not many UN peace missions (Sometimes questionable contribution to peace)
-Export of conventional weapons (SIG & Co... true dat)
-High military expenditure (it's not our fault we're bordering the French, so that point seems unfair)=====> (!!)
-Ease of access to small arms and light weapons (nonsense, why would an armed nation be less peaceful if these weapons aren't used in crime)

Peace and out.

Thanks for the post. Not sure about how they mix domestic crime and security issues with international peace issue.