What Does it Take to be Among the World's Most Peaceful Countries?

 


The United States is one of the world's least peaceful countries, and it's not just because of lax gun laws or tragic shootings.
The Institute for Economics and Peace [IEP], a New York based think tank,' says that the U.S. is rather unpeaceful because it actually exports violence beyond its borders. It recently ranked America, 100th out of 162 countries, in its 7th annual Global Peace Index.
The IEP's Peace Index looks at how each country fares across 21 indicators that include homicide rates, levels of internal conflict, political instability and how much a country spends on its military, relative to its income.
Despite having homicide rates that are higher than those of other developed countries, the U.S. does fairly well in domestic "peace indicators," as it has relatively low levels of violent crime and there is also a low likelihood of violent demonstrations breaking out in the country. But "external peace indicators" drag the country down in the IEP rankings. These include the amount of weapons you sell to other countries, how many wars your country is involved in, and the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal.
So what does it take, to become a peaceful country, according to the IEP? Here are the ten most peaceful nations in the IEP's Global Peace Index for 2013.