International peace day: Global peace worsens amid pandamic, political and civil unrest

The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated this year by an additional 0.07 percent, marking the ninth deterioration in peacefulness in the last thirteen years, with 87 countries improving, and 73 recording deteriorations.

The worsening figures published by the 2021 Global peace Index (GPI) showed a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the past decade have begun to abate, only to be replaced with a new wave of tension and uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions between the major players.

The results come as the world celebrates the International day of peace on Sep. 21.

Between January 2020 and April 2021, pandemic-related violent incidents were recorded in at least 158 countries. These incidents ranged from individual attacks aimed at people of Asian descent to anti-lockdown demonstrations that turned violent. In all, there were around 5,000 such incidents, according to the Global Peace Index 2021 report.

The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peacefulness is still unfolding. However, the changing economic conditions in many nations increase the likelihood of political instability and violent demonstrations.

The index says: “Although key indicators of internal conflict did decrease in 2020, the impact of the pandemic on active conflicts was short-lived, and the total level of political and civil unrest rose over the past year.”

While some forms of violence declined in the short term, growing protests against lockdowns and rising economic uncertainty resulted in civil unrest increasing in 2020. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021.

Militarization, military spending, increased by 4.2%, while ongoing conflict and safety and security deteriorated by 6.2% and 2.5%, respectively.

Conflict in the MENA region was cited by the report as the main reason for “most of the deterioration in peacefulness over the last decade.”
The well-publicized troubles in Syria, Libya and Yemen are at the heart of that, according to the index.

Morocco was ranked as the sixth peaceful country in the MENA region and 79th on the international level.

However, according to the index, there are two shades of peace: positive peace and negative peace.

Higher levels of positive peace are statistically linked to greater income growth, better environmental outcomes, higher levels of wellbeing, better developmental outcomes and stronger resilience, the report says.

But when some countries keep recording a high rate of peacefulness despite the absence of previously mentioned conditions, the report warns, can be a sign of impending violence or conflict: “Sometimes, Positive Peace deficit countries may be ruled by strict regimes that suppress individual freedoms and socio-economic development, but which maintain artificially high levels of peace by forcefully imposing social order.”

In 2009, the GPI identified 39 countries with high peace deficits, 27 of which went on to experience increases in internal conflict in the subsequent decade. The report cites Syria, Libya, Yemen, Nicaragua, Egypt, and Burkina Faso as examples of such countries, where violence has flared in recent years.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.

The GPI covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarization.

The International Day of Peace was established by United Nations General Assembly on the 21st September 1981 in order to “provide a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to peace above all differences and to contribute to building a culture of peace.”