And the winner is: “Report: China, Cuba more peaceful than US.”
The Associated Press ran the story of the release of the 2010 Global Peace Index this way with a true journalist’s flair: the headline itself would pique the interest of a broad base of browsers—irritated conservatives and eager self-validating liberals alike, the in-betweens and the simply curious.
And the intro: China and Cuba are more peaceful than the United States, according to a report published Thursday.
The index, which is put out by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace with data compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, uses as criteria 23 different indicators, which include statistics on violence but also social unrest, military spending, and others. Overall then, Cuba (ranked at 72 out of 149 nations) beats out China (at 80), and both can boast victories over the United States, whose rank of 85 on the list makes it a member of the “less peaceful” half of the world’s nations. Frankly, it’s in embarrassment in the face of the moral superiority complex that has long colored the U.S. global posture. And it will almost certainly serve as someone’s “I told you so” fodder for reviving a critique of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.
I wondered the factors that put Cuba ahead of the United States, and the Vision of Humanity website, which posts the results of the study, gave me the goods. The rankings on which Cuba was considerably ahead of the United States are below.
Interesting, too, are those on which the United States came out ahead of Cuba:
And lastly, the most striking measure on which the United States and Cuba were ranked equally: level of respect for human rights.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
