Egypt has jumped nine places to rank 137th out of 162 countries surveyed for the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index (GPI)2015, which ranks the countries of the world according to their level of peacefulness.
The index gauges global peace using three broad themes; the level of safety and security in the society, the extent of domestic and international conflict and the degree of militarization.
According to the report, Egypt had the third largest improvement in peace in 2015 after Guinea-Bissau and Cote d’Ivoire.
“A common theme among the largest improvers was a fall in the level of organized conflict, which occurred in all of the aforementioned African nations,” the report said.
Libya, which fell 13 places down, experienced the largest deterioration this year while the second biggest decline was recorded for the Ukraine, according to the report.
Egypt is situated between South Africa and Iran in the ranking; Israel is 11 spots behind Egypt while Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan take the last three places on the list, respectively.
The Middle East remains the worst among seven regions surveyed, the report said, noting that its score deteriorated from last year’s index as mild improvements; achieved by Egypt and Tunisia were outweighed by conflicts in Libya, Yemen and Syria.
“Amid the gloom, two noteworthy improvers are Tunisia, which successfully concluded parliamentary and presidential elections in 2014, and Egypt, where the military-backed Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was elected president in May, has brought greater political stability and a decrease in the intensity of internal conflict for now, leading to an improvement in Egypt’s overall score,” said the report.
The report attributed the improvement in Egypt’s peacefulness index to the “large improvement” in its domestic situation since the election of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as president in May 2014.
“Levels of crime have dropped, reflecting the effectiveness of the security apparatus. This resulted in an improvement in the perceptions of criminality indicator, as security forces’ visible presence on the streets has been enhanced compared to the period under the deposed Muslim Brotherhood regime of [President Mohamed] Morsi,” according to the report.
The intensity of internal conflict and political instability have also improved due to the removal of the Brotherhood from power, and an overall improvement in the security situation, which had deteriorated since the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, according to the report.
Iceland is the most peaceful country, with the ten highest ranking nations in the GPI all being stable democracies. Europe, the report says, continues to be the most peaceful region in the world.
