Stability indexes can be deceptive tools

Subject

Review of peace and conflict maps.

Significance

Indexes that rank countries along a colour scale on world maps have become increasingly popular overviews of peace, conflict, investment and development. Yet such indexes can distort the nuanced reality of peace and conflict on the ground, which often varies on the subnational level and affects societal groups to different degrees.

Impacts

• Businesses risk misjudging opportunities for investment by following rankings of countries that do not reflect regional differences.
• International agencies may neglect countries that need support in specific areas yet are ranked high due to good performance in others.
• The difficulty of measuring conflict prevention will mean that governments will continue losing billions of dollars due to violence.