This year's Global Peace Index shows that social unrest and conflicts have doubled over the past decade. Considering only the recent events related to the demonstrations following the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests caused by the coronavirus pandemic, it will not be abusive to say that this statistic may worsen next year.

The Global Peace Index is prepared annually by sociologists and economists of the international expert group of the Australian Institute of Economy and Peace (IEP). The list includes 163 countries from around the world, which are assessed in terms of 23 indicators under three categories: social security , degree of tension internal and external and the militarization of a given country.

The year 2019 was marked by conflicts and increased violence around the world. Just mention the war in Libya, unrest in Afghanistan or growing violence in South and Central America. According to the authors, the entire range of events related to violence contributed to the deterioration of the average peace level by 0.34 percent. compared to the previous edition. This is the ninth time in the last twelve years when the world situation has worsened 2.8 percent since 2008 and only at the top of the ranking there are no major reshuffles.

Iceland has consistently been in the lead since 2008, ahead of New Zealand, Portugal, Austria and Denmark. At the other extreme Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and South Sudan were classified. Poland is 29th, dropping by one position. Our country was classified in the group of countries with "high" peace. This group has the most representatives of Europe, which has the least violent riots and protests around the world.

(EURACTIV)