Public distrust of US government affects harmony in North America, but annual index records first improvement in global peace levels since Syria war began

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Peace has deteriorated in North America following the turbulent US presidential campaign, claim researchers, with racial tension and murder rates rising even as the rest of the world shows signs of recovering from a period of unprecedented violence and upheaval.

The divisive nature of Donald Trump’s rise to the White House has increased mistrust of the US government and means social problems are likely to become more entrenched, said the authors of the annual global peace index, in which 163 countries and territories are analysed.



As a result, they said, harmony in the North America region has diminished, even though Canada – ranked eighth overall in the index – has become slightly more peaceful.

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“While the true extent of such significant political polarity in the US will take years to be fully realised, its disruptive influence is already evident,” said Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, the thinktank behind the study.

“Increasing inequality, rising perceptions of corruption, and falling press freedoms have all contributed to this substantial deterioration in the US and an overall decline in peace in the North America region.”

In contrast, the political uncertainty that Brexit created in the UK was counterbalanced by the appointment of a new prime minister, the report said.

The world has nonetheless become a more peaceful place overall, with 93 countries recording higher levels since last year, the first improvement since the Syria conflict began in 2011.

Despite its reduced score on the index – it fell from 103 to 114 – North America retained its position as the most peaceful region after Europe.

But while global peace made a modest overall improvement of 0.28%, the number of countries witnessing a record number of deaths from terrorism hit an all-time high, rising from 16 to 23, the report found. Thecountries affected included Denmark, Sweden, France and Turkey. Last week’s terror attack in Manchester, which killed 22 people, was not reflected in the figures.

The improvement in peace in 93 countries was driven mainly by lower levels of state-sponsored terror, such as extra-judicial killings and torture, and the prior withdrawal of military forces in Afghanistan, the researchers said.



Iceland topped the list as the world’s most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand and Portugal, which replaced Denmark and Austria this year.

Syria was ranked the least peaceful country for the fifth consecutive year. Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen completed the list of the five least peaceful countries.

Largely driven by the intensifying conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, world peace has declined over the past decade, ending a period of improvement since the second world war.

The sharp increase in support for populist parties over the past decade closely corresponded with deteriorations in “positive peace”, a measurement of the attitudes, structures and institutions that sustain peace, said the researchers. They recorded some of the largest falls in Italy, France and Spain.

Killelea said: “The increasing role of populist parties in mainstream European politics is reflected against a backdrop of deteriorating positive peace, specifically in terms of persistent challenges to the free flow of information, levels of corruption and acceptance of the rights of others. Without addressing these underlying drivers of peace it will not be possible to build more peaceful societies.”

The most significant increases in deaths from terrorism were in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, which experienced a 900% increase between 2007-and 2016, the researchers found.

The Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace estimates the global effect of violence to have been 12.6% of world GDP, or $14tn, in 2016: $1,953 for every person in the world.