Thursday, June 14, 2012 -
Tajikistan leads the five Central Asian countries in an annual ranking of global world peace released Tuesday.
The 2012 Global Peace Index, an annual compilation by U.S.-Australian think tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace, saw Tajikistan move up four spots from its 2011 list.
Tajikistan took 99th place out of 158 countries in the rankings, which also uses data from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The 2012 index ranks 158 nations using 23 indicators which gauge ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, democracy and transparency, and militarization.
The remaining Central Asian republics all dropped in the rankings, compared with last year.
Kazakhstan slid 11 slots this year to land at position 105.
Uzbekistan dropped four positions to 110th place. Turkmenistan stands at 117, a 10-place slide versus 2011.
Kyrgyzstan takes slot 131, down from 114 last year.
Most of the Central Asian nations lose out mainly to a combination of negatives, which include the ease of access to weapons, organized domestic conflict, violent crime, and political terror.
Nearby war-torn Afghanistan, which is a leading source of narcotics, weapons, and violent extremism, is ranked second to bottom at position 157.
Russia, to the north of the Central Asian region, doesn’t far too much better at rank 153.
Somalia is the least peaceful of all countries surveyed.
Iceland is reckoned to be the most peaceful country in the world for the second consecutive year.
The report is published online at visionofhumanity.org.