| Peace is a category, defining the vital conditions of coexistence of the states, the nature of relationships between the people and the states (coalitions of the states), based on mutual consideration of national interests, adopting foreign policy through nonviolent means, absence of open-type military collisions (armed struggle) and the observance of mutual treaty obligations. Owing to a number of objective and subjective political, economic and other reasons, quite often, peace is interrupted by wars.
Peace, preceding the war, contains open and latent preparation elements for future military conflicts. Peace, after the war, is a continuation of policy, adopted during war, taking the essential changes into account which occurred in life of at least one of the sides engaged in war as a result of military actions.
Peace is the type of relations between the states with a various social order, which assumes: refusal from war as a means of deciding the differences between the states, resolving them through negotiations; equality, mutual understanding and trust between the states, taking the interests of each others state into consideration: non-interference in internal affairs, recognizing the right of each nation to freely select the socio-economic and political system; strict respect of sovereignty and the territorial integrity of all the countries; development of economic and cultural cooperation on the basis of complete equality and mutual benefits. The policy, directed on establishment and development of such type of relations between the states is called as peace policy.
The peace policy has a compromise nature. It is based on the findings of reasonable balance of interests, mutually acceptable agreements. Within the frameworks of such agreements, each of the side strives naturally to defend its principal, radical interests.
The Global Peace Index is the index characterizing the peacefulness of countries and regions. It was developed by economists from the International Panel of Experts on Peace from the Institute for Peace along with the Center for Peace and studies on conflicts, Sydney University, Australia. For the first time, the index was calculated in May, 2007. It was stated that the index is the first attempt to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness. The idea was conceived by an Australian entrepreneur Steve Killelea and the idea was endorsed by people like the Dalai Lama and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The index takes both internal factors, such as level of violence in the country and crime as well as external, such as the International relations of countries, defense budget etc into account.
Methodology:
Indicators, which do not have a 5 point evaluation, are brought to the 5 point system as per formula: x = (x-Min (x)) / (Max (x)-Min (x)), where Max (x) and Min (x) are the maximum and minimum indicators of countries represented in the index. After that, the obtained value from 0 to 1 is converted to a score from 1 to 5. Each indicator is assigned a weight according to the decision of the research team on its significance. Further, assessments are grouped into two sub-indices: internal peace (60% of the final evaluation of the country) and external peace (40% of the final evaluation of the country).
The most important data received by means of the peacefulness index:
* Peacefulness correlates with indicators such as annual revenue, school education and level of regional integration;
* Peaceful countries, as a rule, possess a high level of transparency of government and less corruption;
* Small and stable countries, which are part of regional blocks, have every prospect of improving upon their index.
Criticism and response to criticism:
The Peace Index is criticized for lack of indicators that can measure violence against women and children. Riane Eisler, writing for the "Christian Science Monitor", mentions a number of specific cases, including Egypt, where she states that 90% of women are subjected to genital mutilation and China, where female infanticide still remains a serious problem as expressed in imbalance between the female and male population". |
Past Sunday the world celebrated the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 and celebrated annually on September 21, the International Day of Peace calls for a full day of peace and ceasefire through the world.
