Iceland most peaceful nation, US 97th

by Rob Peters | May 20, 2008 at 03:54 pm

2960 views | 18 Recommendations | 30 comments

These types of rankings are funny in some ways--is the 78th spot that different from the 77th?--but good for a ballpark indicator I suppose. In case you're wondering, Canada finished in the 11th spot.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation while the United States is ranked among the bottom third, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The "Global Peace Index," compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the United States 97th out of 140 countries according to how peaceful they were domestically and how they interacted with the outside world.

The United States slipped from 96th last year, but was still ahead of foe Iran which ranked 105th. It, however, lagged Belarus, Cuba, South Korea, Chile, Libya and others which were listed as more peaceful.

Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003, leading to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, ranked lowest on the index. Afghanistan, another country invaded by the United States this decade, was also in the bottom five, along with Sudan, Somalia and Israel.

Small, stable and democratic countries were found to be the most peaceful in the index, with 16 of the top 20 coming from western or central European democracies.

The index looks at 24 indicators of external and internal measures of peace, including U.N. deployments overseas and levels of violent crime, respect for human rights, the number of soldiers killed overseas and arms sales.

The Group of Eight major economic powers were a mixed bag. Japan ranked fifth, Canada 11th, Germany 14th, Italy 28th, France 36th and Britain 49th. Russia was near the bottom at 131st, the only one in the group below the United States.

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Jarrett Martineau

at 16:34 on May 20th, 2008

Now someone needs to compare GPI with GDP and GNH, no?

Barry ORegan

at 23:32 on May 20th, 2008

Peaceful yes, until you encroach on their fishing grounds, then their Coast Guard will fire on your ass, and in some instances have rammed ships, including British and Spanish/Port fishing vessels. They may be small, but they don't back down from anyone.

siggi geirs

at 06:47 on May 21st, 2008

No not ramed, but cut the lines on vessels of fishing pirates which were fishing in Icelandic waters. Something I think every nation does, i.e. protect their boundaries.

But on the other hand our Coast Guard ships have been rammed by British destroyers when they were protecting piracy within our fishing boundaries.

And of cours our Coast Guard will fire upon ships that have been pirating within our fishing boundaries and refuse to stop when given an order to stop. Before they are fired upon they are warned that they will be fired upon and where the bullet will land so they should remove everybody from that part of the ship if they don´t want somebody to get hurt. Sofar no insidents have been reported of anybody getting hurt when our Coast Guard is firing upon them.

Sanjay Jha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 23:33 on May 20th, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

ástaðeilifu

at 00:28 on May 21st, 2008

Iceland is a country of extreme weather conditions. It can be extreme in a scary way, but also extremely beautiful. While driving into Hvalfjörður, a fjord north of Reykjavík area we were greeted by rain, sun and the rainbow followed...

ástaðeilifu has contributed a photo to this story.

siggi geirs

at 01:33 on May 21st, 2008

A sudden shower during an othervise sunny day. My daughter who was going outside saw it and came runnin in to tell me I should come outside with my camera. The rainbow just lasted a few minutes so I only got a few pictures of it. This one I liked the best.

siggi geirs has contributed a photo to this story.

Sushanta Meh

at 04:23 on May 21st, 2008

The rainbow was so clear and its colors so strong this day I forgot my flue and fever to run out and try and capture it.

Sushanta Meh has contributed a photo to this story.

peaceswirl

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:59 on May 21st, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

This is the kind of news I want to hear about!!!Awesome!! thank you so very much!

pvonelling

at 06:23 on May 21st, 2008

I shot this on vacation with my wife in 2004. I was able to capture the rainbow created from the spray of the waterfall into the chasm below.

pvonelling has contributed a photo to this story.

Ingólfur

at 09:39 on May 21st, 2008

This is a rainbow over Reykjavík in Iceland.

Ingólfur has contributed a photo to this story.

Ingvi Lar

at 10:42 on May 21st, 2008

There can be two, three or four different kinds of wheatear in one and the same day in Iceland. The sun may be shining in the early morning, rain at midday, maybe some snow in the afternoon and cloudy in the evening.
When I took this photo it had rained a little but the sun was shining through the clouds and I saw this beautiful double rainbow.

Ingvi Lar has contributed a photo to this story.

Barry ORegan

at 14:47 on May 21st, 2008

Though I have never visited Iceland, the photos I have seen and TV documentaries show an awesome beautiful country, I would live there in a heartbeat, but since I was born in the Frozen Tundra of the Arctic, snow and freezing rain and I do not see eye to eye. All in all Iceland seems to be a lot like the West Coast of BC, except the people are most likely a lot more friendly and law abiding.

moonderijntje

at 12:18 on May 21st, 2008

Breathtaking: the sound, the view, the water, nature, everything. Gulfoss Iceland

moonderijntje has contributed a photo to this story.

liminalists

at 13:38 on May 21st, 2008

The political possibilities of conversation seemed endless in Iceland; the young people were open minded and indeed, peaceful.

liminalists has contributed a photo to this story.

linus

at 13:46 on May 21st, 2008

actually you shouldn't let the rainbow and the kids fool you (i mean, take a close look, those kids are running away)

seriously, skógafoss is a raw and brutal untethered force of nature. like a lot of things in iceland it has the capability to break your mind and blow it into smithereens...

linus has contributed a photo to this story.

gudmundur.ragnarsson

at 15:55 on May 21st, 2008

After a rainy day the sun breaks through. My icelandic horses in the field at Bessastadir. Behind you can see the houses of Bessastadir, where Mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimson, the president of Iceland lives.

gudmundur.ragnarsson has contributed a photo to this story.

tttallis

at 23:33 on May 21st, 2008

tttallis has contributed a photo to this story.

LaStef

at 03:51 on May 22nd, 2008

I went on a tour with the family and we decided to view Dettifoss since it is one of my favorite scenes, very powerful and you feel the earth shake beneath your feet when standing beside this magnificent waterfall. It contains glacier water and is therefore gray and gloomy as well as the surrounding but for few green spots.

LaStef has contributed a photo to this story.

alien2077

at 05:18 on May 22nd, 2008

Early morning in Reykjavik.

alien2077 has contributed a photo to this story.

tt_koski

at 05:25 on May 22nd, 2008

Travelling around Iceland last August 07 taking photos of lighthouses. This picture is taken near Vik, lighthouse of Dyrholaey. Sun was rising and then I saw rainbow. Beautiful country, I recommend.

tt_koski has contributed a photo to this story.

Gunnsi

at 05:33 on May 22nd, 2008

This picture is taken from the Solfar in Reykjavík, Icelands capital, towards Viðey, a very small island. Viðey is also known to be one of the most peaceful places in Reykjavik.
Recently Yoko Ono put a memorial there.

Gunnsi has contributed a photo to this story.

Drew Bulman

at 07:00 on May 22nd, 2008

I never realized we have so many Icelandic folk on nowpublic!

Konny

at 07:34 on May 22nd, 2008

This picture was taken in Westman islands. Westman islands is a group of small islands outside the south coast of Iceland.

Konny has contributed a photo to this story.

angry_cellist

at 11:19 on May 22nd, 2008

It's definitely one of the greatest places on Earth: peaceful, quiet and friendly.

matkowski

at 12:30 on May 23rd, 2008

weekly demonstrations under the China Embassy in Reykjaik

atomch has contributed a photo to this story.

kaywood

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:22 on May 23rd, 2008

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

mifl68

at 02:29 on May 25th, 2008

Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Europe by volume of water. We went to the western side, which is the harder to get to. The wind was blowing our way, and we were drenched by a wall of spray. But the sun came out, and gave us this fantastic rainbow.

mifl68 has contributed a photo to this story.

EdinaNit

at 11:26 on May 25th, 2008

This was taken through the windscreen of the car. On this particular day, the weather changed from bright and sunny to heavy rain, producing this double Rainbow. Further on, billowing fog descended and the sky went dark with little visibility.

EdinaNit has contributed a photo to this story.

Fezzer

at 05:06 on May 26th, 2008

The beautiful Hengifoss waterfall in East Iceland caught with a rainbow.

Fezzer has contributed a photo to this story.

johnfromks

at 13:48 on May 29th, 2008

After driving through a rainstorm, the sky suddenly cleared up when we got to this spot at Thingvellir National Park. The rainbow seemed to direct us to these historic houses.

johnfromks has contributed a photo to this story.