(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman is the fifth most peaceful country in the region and 59th in the world according to the recently released 2014 Global Peace Index (GPI). The index shows that Iceland, Denmark and Austria are the top three most peaceful countries in the world.
The eighth edition of GPI, which ranks nations according to their level of peace, was released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The index comprises 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators, and ranks 162 countries, covering 99.6 per cent of the world's population. The index gauges global peace using three broad themes: the level of safety and security in society; the extent of domestic or international conflict and the degree of militarisation.
In an e-mail reply to Muscat Daily, Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of IEP said, ''Oman's comparatively high ranking on GPI (59th out of 162), reflects the country's low level of perceived criminality, violent crime and terrorist activity.
''External threats to peace are also posed by Oman's geographical position, which makes it susceptible to regional tensions. The November 2013 interim nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers makes this less likely. Further, Oman shares its southern border with Yemen, which is emerging from a deep political crisis. External threats to peace remain in the form of any deterioration in relations between Iran and the US or other GCC states, or a further deterioration in security in Yemen.''
In the 2012 Global Terrorist Index, which was also compiled by IEP, showed Oman to be the least affected by terrorism in the MENA region. Killelea said. ''Iraq which topped the global list had the highest impact of terrorism. The higher the numerical ranking, the lower the impact of terrorism is. Oman isn't ranked because it got a score of zero, meaning there is no impact of terrorism in the country - making it the best in the region. Iraq is most affected by terrorism, followed by Yemen and Syria. UAE is the second least affected country, after Oman.''
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