Bangladesh has moved one step down in the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2017, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ranking as the 84th most peaceful country in the world, reports UNB. In 2016, Bangladesh was ranked 83 on the GPI index to advance from 84th position in 2015. Yet Bangladesh has retained its position as the third most peaceful country in the South Asian region while Bhutan retained as first and Sri Lanka improved to the position of second. Nepal faced deteriorations enough to move down to the fourth position. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in fifth, sixth and seventh positions respectively in the South Asia, said the report of GPI in 2017. Our correspondent adds: South Asia continues to be ranked eighth out of the nine regions in the 2017 GPI. According to the report, this region hosts some countries as peaceful as Bhutan (ranked 13th overall), yet also some of the least peaceful countries in the world such as Pakistan (152nd) and Afghanistan (162nd). The scores for Sri Lanka and Pakistan improved this year, while the only deteriorations (although moderate) were registered in Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. In Nepal, a high level of political instability is partly to blame for the slow progress in rebuilding efforts after the devastating earthquake of 2015.
Indicators of Societal Safety and Security have deteriorated in the fragile environment. Afghanistan’s overall score deteriorated for the sixth successive year as overall hostility continued to increase. Fierce rivalry within the political leadership, factionalism and growing discontent with government policy has ensured a deterioration in the number and duration of internal conflicts.
A contrasting situation was seen in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India—the countries that have made the most improvement in terms of overall score. The ongoing consolidation of power undertaken by Sri Lanka’s government led by the president, Maithripala Sirisena, has 2016 of the long-time authoritarian leader, Islam Karimov, the new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has made some positive reform announcements, the GPI report said.
 This includes boosting the role of the legislature and strengthening the rule of law, although progress on any tentative democratising plans is likely to be minimal. Russia’s performance was more mixed. While a cut in its defence budget saw its military expenditure as a percentage of GDP score improve, its continued bombing campaign in Syria drove a deterioration in the number, duration and role in external conflicts. Conflict in the North Caucasus, which saw many high-profile security operations last year, affected the score for the indicator measuring the number and duration of internal conflicts.
The GPI report said, although global peace has recently deteriorated, key indicators of militarisation have improved considerably in the past three decades. This decrease has been driven by significant disarmament in the developed world and through the breakup of the Soviet Union. However, the positive global trend in militarisation conceals the fact that the developing world is becoming more militarised, where many countries have experienced both high levels of economic growth and increased military spending, although military expenditure as a percentage of GDP has decreased. Also, countries in tense regions have increased their militarisation over the last thirty years, these include: Egypt, South Korea, Iran and Pakistan, it added. On the other hand, USA was ranked 114th position in the GPI while Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world. However, this year, the global peace has slightly improved by 0.28 percent with 98 countries are facing improvement and 68 deterioration. Violence costs 12.6 per cent of the world’s GDP, though the number of people killed by terrorism dropped into 10 per cent and the economic impact of war was US$1.04 trillion. On the other hand, peace building expenditure is estimated to be approximately US$10 billion, which is less than one percent of the overall cost of the war. The Global Peace Index measured the state of peace in 163 independent states and territories according to 23 indicators that gauge the absence of violence or the fear of violence.