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".