Severe Indictment Of U.S. Foreign Policy
By César Chelala
06/05/07 -- "ICH"
-- -- New York -- -- According to the just released Global
Peace Index, created by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the
U.S. is among the least peaceful nations in the world. And
Russia is even less so, a severe condemnation for these two
powerful countries. This serious indictment shows the need to
reassess policies and return to the rule of international law if
the goal for a more peaceful world is to be achieved.
The US ranked 96 out of 121 nations considered, worse than Yemen
and slightly better than Iran, Honduras and South Africa. As a
comparison, Japan ranked 5th, and three Scandinavian countries
(Norway, Denmark and Sweden) ranked among the seven most
peaceful countries in the world. Fifteen of the top most
peaceful nations are in Western Europe, in countries with
democratic values and good standard of living.
The index was based in 24 different indicators which measured
peace inside and outside a country. The external indicators
included the number of wars a country was involved in the last
five years, how much money was earned in arms sales, how many
soldiers were killed overseas, and defense spending.
A 2005 report by the World Policy Institute states that most of
the U.S.’ arms sales to developing countries go to governments
that the U.S. State Department qualifies as undemocratic, such
as Pakistan, Angola and Saudi Arabia. Presently, U.S. military
expenditures equal those of the next 25 countries put together.
According to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, military
global spending in 2004 was over $1 trillion. Of that amount,
almost 47 percent was spent by the U.S.
Domestic indicators included the number of people in prisons,
relations with other countries, level of distrust in other
citizens and number of violent crimes. The results were then
reviewed by a panel of experts, who tried to find out the
qualities that lead to a more peaceful environment.
The U.S., which occupied the 96th place, was just ahead of Iran,
classified in the 97th place but behind Syria, which was in the
77 place. Russia and Israel occupied the 118th and 119th place
respectively. U.S. involvement in Iraq and its doctrine of
preemptive war, essentially flaunting international law,
contributed to the U.S.’s poor showing. It studied 121
countries, from Algiers to Zimbabwe and it was released less
than one week before the G8 leaders gather in Germany to discuss
issues of global concern.
Almost at the same as the release of the Index rating, Dr.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, declared to the BBC, “I wake up every morning and see
100 Iraqis innocent civilians are dying. I have no brief other
than to make sure we don’t go into another war or that we go
crazy killing each other. You do not want to give additional
argument to new crazies who say ‘let’s go and bomb Iran.’”
The survey is meant to inform governments, international
organizations, non-governmental organizations and the general
public of the countries’ efforts to promote peace. It also
intends to be a wake-up call for political leaders who have been
reluctant to adopt policies that promote peace.
The results of the Index confirm a previous study carried out by
several newspapers around the world, including the Guardian in
Britain, Haaretz in Israel, La Presse and Toronto Star in Canada
and Reforma in Mexico. The study found that 62% of Canadians and
57% of Mexicans believe that the world has become more dangerous
because of U.S. policies.
That study also showed the British voters considered President
George Bush as a greater danger to peace than either the North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il or even the Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. It is a paradoxical finding that countries that
were called part of an “axis of evil” are considered less
dangerous to world peace than the U.S. itself. While 87% of
British voters in that study considered that Osama bin Laden is
a great or moderate threat to peace, 75% think the same of
President George Bush.
The Global Index is the first study to rank countries according
to their level of peacefulness, and to analyze the conditions
that contribute to a more peaceful world.
The Index found that peace is correlated to indicators such as
income, schooling and level of regional integration, and that
peaceful countries have high levels of transparency of
government proceedings and low levels of corruption.
That the U.S. -and the United Kingdom, ranked 49th- are so
poorly ranked should be a significant cause of concern. It shows
that the Iraq adventure has seriously damaged both countries’
reputation, one that will take a serious effort to redress, and
has become a significant cause of world instability.
César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of
America award for an article on human rights.
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