Armenia weakened its position in  Global Peace Index

ArmInfo. Armenia weakened its  position in the Global Peace Index, dropping to 94th place. This is  stated in the annual report released on Thursday by the Institute for  Economics & Peace (IEP), which ranks 163 independent states and  territories according to their level of peacefulness. 

According to the source, "GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world's  population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from  highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across  three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent  of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of  Militarisation."

Thus, Armenia is ranked among the states with an average peace-loving  nature, marked in yellow on the map. Armenia in the ranking is  located between Gabon and Sri Lanka.  Meanwhile, the neighbors of  Armenia: Georgia weakened its position by 5 points, ranking 89th,  Azerbaijan weakened its position by 6 points, ranking 121st and  closing the list of states of average peace-loving nature, marked in  yellow on the map. Turkey is among the states with a low level of  peacefulness (orange color) - it ranks 149th. Iran has improved its  position by one point, ranking 141st (orange).

Russia's position in the ranking has not changed compared to last  year. The country is in the top ten of the list, ranking 154th out of  163.

The IEP representative called the most impressive conclusion of the  report the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the state of global  peace.   "This year's results show that the average level of global  peacefulness deteriorated by 0.07 per cent. This is the ninth  deterioration in peacefulness in the last thirteen years, with 87  countries improving, and 73 recording deteriorations; however, the  change in score is the second smallest in the history of the index.  The 2021 GPI reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that  emerged in the past decade have begun to abate, only to be replaced  with a new wave of tension and uncertainty as a result of the  COVID-19 pandemic and rising tensions between many of the major  powers.

The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peacefulness is still  unfolding. While some forms of violence declined in the short term,  growing unease with lockdowns and rising economic uncertainty  resulted in civil unrest increasing in 2020. Over 5,000  pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020  and April 2021. It is still too early to fully gauge the long-term  effects of the pandemic on peace. However, the changing economic  conditions in many nations increases the likelihood of political  instability and violent demonstrations".