UAE is third most peaceful country in Mideast region – Global peace index survey

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DUBAI, June 1, (GulfNews): The UAE has been ranked the third most peaceful country in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the newly released annual Global Peace Index.

The UAE is placed 65th overall in the world out of 163 countries, scoring high in areas of strong security and policing with 4.5 of a total 5 points and a full 5/5 points for securing military hardware needed for defence.

The emirates also scored well with low indicators of violence at 1/5 and low homicide rate per capita at 1.3/5, according to the report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The report noted, “Since 2008, the global level of peace has deteriorated by 2.14 per cent, with 80 countries improving while 83 countries deteriorated.” Conflict costs money and the index noted that peace by comparison is far cheaper.

“The economic impact of war was $1.04 trillion. Peace-building expenditure is estimated to be approximately $10 billion, or less than one per cent of the cost of war,” the index said. The GPI also predicted that more money may be forthcoming “for increases in peace-building funding, noting that the return on investment can be up to 16 times the cost of intervention, highlighting a major opportunity for future investment”. “The impact of violence for the ten least peaceful countries was equivalent to 37 per cent of their GDP. This compares to only three per cent in the ten most peaceful (countries),” the report stated.

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