Georgia: A regional leader in peace, says Positive Peace Report 2015

Georgia is becoming a more peaceful nation and the main contributor in its region to ensuring global peace, according to a survey released by international think-tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The Positive Peace Report 2015, released yesterday, surveyed 162 nations through a range of indicators before ranking countries according to their state of positive peace. Essentially, IEP claimed countries with positive peace tended to be less violent, more economically stable, have gender equality and happier citizens.

On a global scale Positive Peace has improved steadily since 2005, said IEP. One hundred and eighteen of 162 countries ranked in the Positive Peace index, or 73 per cent, showed an improvement to 2015.

While the 2015 report did not state Georgia’s previous scores, it did reveal Georgia had made great progress in recent years. The 2015 report ranked Georgia 60th of 162 nations – or in the top 37 percent of countries surveyed.

The top five countries with Positive Peace were Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Ireland, while the five countries with the lowest level of Positive Peace were Somalia, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Chad and Zimbabwe.

Regionally North American countries had the highest level of Positive Peace, closely followed by countries in Europe, said the report.

Georgia was the only country in the Russia and Eurasia region that scored better than the global average, quite an achievement for a country that experienced armed conflict with Russia and separatists in 2008.

Since 2012, its score for good relations with neighbours has improved by 68 percent. Acceptance of the rights of others has remained fairly flat and the conflict between the Government of Georgia and the separatists has not yet been fully resolved.”

The report mentioned Georgia was one of five post-conflict countries. "As countries progress through and out of conflict, their institutions can either support or impede the successful transition to a peaceful society.” But the five countries – Code d’Ivoire, Georgia, Myanmar, Nepal and Rwanda – have all made notable improvements in their Positive Peace scores, said the IEP.

In Georgia’s case, its greatest improvement was seen in its relations with neighbours. Georgia also scored higher than the other four post-conflict nations in the categories of ‘well-functioning government’, ‘sound business environment’ and ‘free flow of information. 

Despite improving year-on-year in ‘high levels of human capital’ and ‘equitable distribution of resources’, Georgia scored lower than the other four countries’ in these categories. Furthermore, Georgia deteriorated greater in terms of ‘low levels of corruption’, and ‘acceptance of the rights of others’.

Georgia’s full results and global results of the Positive Peace Report 2015 can be found here.