A new report released Friday said that the global cost of war
was soaring as it was US$14 trillion in 2014. The report by the
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) also claimed that
conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were responsible for
most of the deaths in the world. According to the report, Syria
remained the least peaceful place on Earth, followed by Iraq and
Afghanistan, with the United States contributing violence in all
three nations. “Last year alone it is estimated that 20,000
people were killed in terrorist attacks up from an average of
2,000 a year only 10 years ago,” the report said. The Global
Peace Index report said that war spending amounts to 13 percent
of the global GDP, which is almost the combined value of the
economies of United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Spain and
Brazil.
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Global Cost of War Was $14 Trillion Last Year
By teleSUR / mh-CM
June 20, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "teleSur"
- A new report released Friday said that
the global cost of war was soaring as it was US$14 trillion in 2014.
The report by the Institute for Economics and
Peace (IEP) also claimed that conflicts in Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan were responsible for most of the deaths in the world.
According to the report, Syria remained the
least peaceful place on Earth, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan,
with the United States contributing violence in all three nations.
“Last year alone it is estimated that 20,000 people were killed in
terrorist attacks up from an average of 2,000 a year only 10 years
ago,” the report said.
The Global Peace Index report said that war
spending amounts to 13 percent of the global GDP, which is almost
the combined value of the economies of United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Canada, Spain and Brazil.
Steve Killelea, Founder and Executive Chairman,
Institute for Economics and Peace said if “global violence were to
decrease by 10 percent uniformly, an additional US$1.43 trillion
would effectively be added to the world economy.”
“[Year] 2014 was marked by contradictory trends:
on the one hand many countries in the OECD [Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development] achieved historically high
levels of peace, while on the other, strife-torn nations, especially
in the Middle East, became more violent. This is a real concern as
these conflicts become even more intractable they spread terrorism
to other states,” Killelea added.
Published annually since 2008, the Global Peace
Index uses 23 indicators and three key themes; “level of safety and
security in society,” “the extent of domestic and international
conflict,” and “the degree of militarization.”
Those killed as a result of conflicts has risen
from just 49,000 people in 2010 to 180,000 in 2014, as the Middle
East and North Africa became the least peaceful regions in the world
since the index began in 2008.
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