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Georgia is 111th in the Global Peace Index 2014

Wednesday, August 20
As a whole, Russia and Eurasia showed a modest improvement in the rankings, and benefited from positive score changes from all but four of the 12 states on the Index. These were Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were affected by a rise in the number of deaths from organized conflict (internal) as both countries continued to suffer from antigovernment movements, including jihadist and separatist groups. Undoubtedly, the key event in the region was the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, which was sparked by

The Euromaidan protests and led to the removal of the Yanukovich government in late February followed by the subsequent Russian occupation and annexation of the Crimea in March. This caused both Ukraine and Russia’s performance in domestic and international conflict to tumble, although Russia’s overall score was offset by improvements in the number of security officers and police, number of homicides, number of external and internal conflicts fought (this driven by the exclusion of the 2008 Ossetian conflict from the calculations) and, to a lesser extent, terrorist activity. In contrast, Ukraine’s domestic peace score also deteriorated sharply on account of its internal conflict and political instability. Still, Russia remained the least peaceful country in the region and one of the worst performers globally, ranking 152nd. The most robust positive changes in the overall score were seen in Georgia and Uzbekistan, the former gradually returning to normality following its 2011 conflict with Russia. Bloody stalemate between government forces loyal to the president, Bashar al-Assad, and the numerous rebel groups fighting against it. Syria saw some of its categories reach the highest score (5), including those related to refugees and displaced persons (estimated at over one-third of the population), ease of access to small arms and light weapons, and overall level of violent crime. This more than offset an important improvement in terms of its nuclear and heavy weapons capabilities, many of which have been destroyed over the course of the conflict. Other countries that became less peaceful over the past year included Iraq (partly due to an increase in internal violence, but also due to the ongoing build-up of its armed forces under US auspices), the UAE and Oman, whereas Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen recorded the sharpest improvements; in the case of Libya, this was as a result of a gradual normalization of conditions in the years after the 2011 revolution and NATO intervention. (Global Peace Index)