DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - China peace index ranks 80th, while US 85th

**Gvadelunar** · 08-29-2012, 10:08 AM

The index is weighted to the number of wars fought, the number of deaths without regard to which war is justified or not, jailed persons, crime committed, and so on. It is an attempt, but like any index, is bias. But the biggest mistake is to say this index is about anti war.

How is that a bias ? It's just its definition.
Bias comes in exactly when you introduce concepts such as 'justification' which is always subjective. Whether a war is justified or not, even if there were some objective values to measure this against, it makes no difference in the observation that there is an absence of peace.

The only true value in this is not where the country is listed in which year, but how the ranks changed over time. For instance, the United States went from 97 in 2007 to 85 in 2010 while Cuba went from 52 to 77 from 2007 to 2010. So, is the US getting better or Cuba getting worse?

In the relative ranking of countries both statements are true. It's not a dichotomy.

08-29-2012, 10:08 AM	#10
Gvadelunar Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 475 Senior Member	The index is weighted to the number of wars fought, the number of deaths without regard to which war is justified or not, jailed persons, crime committed, and so on. It is an attempt, but like any index, is bias. But the biggest mistake is to say this index is about anti war. How is that a bias ? It's just its definition. Bias comes in exactly when you introduce concepts such as 'justification' which is always subjective. Whether a war is justified or not, even if there were some objective values to measure this against, it makes no difference in the observation that there is an absence of peace. The only true value in this is not where the country is listed in which year, but how the ranks changed over time. For instance, the United States went from 97 in 2007 to 85 in 2010 while Cuba went from 52 to 77 from 2007 to 2010. So, is the US getting better or Cuba getting worse? In the relative ranking of countries both statements are true. It's not a dichotomy.
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