Various different research agencies carry out their studies to create lists of the world’s most and least dangerous countries. These agencies have criteria that they consider for ranking such as level of militarisation, level of safety and security in society and the extent of domestic and international conflict. However, most reliable agencies tend to rank Pakistan as being among the most unsafe counties in the world.
An ex CIA official went on record to say that Pakistan is the most dangerous country for the world. While it may stop short of being the most dangerous in the world, the combination of factors such as the constant threat of terrorist attacks and the frequent terror incidents, a failing economy and growing nuclear arsenal make it the most dangerous for other countries.
The World Economic Forum, a Swiss nonprofit, recently released this year's Global Travel and Tourism report which measures travel and tourism competitiveness. It ranked Nigeria, Colombia, Yemen, Pakistan and Venezuela the most dangerous countries in the world. The other countries in that list are considered unsafe because of high level of criminal activities by gangs whereas Pakistan is unsafe because of the high level of terror threat perception.
Popular outdoor travel blog Atlas & Boots ranks the country at No. 11, however the facts speak for themselves: whereas 164 Pakistanis died from terror attacks in 2013, 3318 died in 2009. Between 2001 and 2011, 35,000 Pakistanis died as a fallout of terror. Past Pak leaders have admitted that the terrorists have been "deliberately created and nurtured" by governments for some short term objectives.
The American intelligence gathering agency, IntelCenter's has a Country Threat Index (CTI) system that examines various aspects such as the volume of terrorist and rebel alerts, messaging traffic, videos, photos, incidents and the number killed and injured in a country to asses danger. Pakistan has the fifth highest CTI score behind Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey. However this same report says the United States has the 8th highest CTI score.
Some of these lists do not take into consideration certain countries such as Syria, South Sudan and Iraq because these war ravaged nations no longer have functioning economies as such. Several lists include countries such as Russia and Ukraine as being among the most dangerous countries in the world. The area is dangerous because of the crisis between the two countries; perceived as one of the biggest crises since the Cold War. The activities of Pro-Russian separatists have destabilized the area.
Though Europe is thought to be peaceful on the whole and Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Austria continue to feature among the top safest countries in the world, safety indicators have declined here as well. Turkey has suffered greatly in recent times and the attacks in Paris and Brussels have altered these perceptions as well.
With so much unrest, so many warzones, so many displaced populations leading to refugee crises all over the world, the world is more unsafe than ever before. The statistics above reveal some very unsettling realities.
There are reasons to hope too, however. Not so very long ago, the African country Rwanda saw brutal genocide however now some polls rate it as being one of the safest countries in the world along with others such as Finland, UAE, Iceland today. Perhaps there is hope that Pakistan can also turn itself around?
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
