Page 170 - Abhivruddhi

usually dominated by Russia.
Europe is one of the most peaceful regions and Iceland is ranked as the
world’s most peaceful country by the Global Peace Index. According to
the 2019 GPI report, the European region became more peaceful than the
past year. Main concerns with economic costs of violence in this region
are associated with terrorism and the Turkish involvement in the Syrian
conflict.
Despite being regarded as very peaceful regions, the continent of North
America and Europe rank 2nd and 3rd respectively in the per capita
violence containment spending and South Asia, being the second least
peaceful region ranks second-last in the per capita spending on violence
containment. (fig. 4).

V] Changes observed in the composition of global economic costs
of violence:
Direct costs involve costs to the government, perpetrator and the
victim. These comprise of cost of policing, etc. Indirect costs are costs
that grow after the event has taken place. These include physical and
psychological trauma to the victim, indirect economic losses and lost
productivity. The multiplier effect is the trickle-down effect of the direct
costs.
After observing a steady growth in the economic costs and military
expenditure on a global level for more than a decade, there can be seen
a negative change. According to the Global Peace Index report of 2019,
improvement is seen in the global peace as well as a reduction in the
economic costs of violence is recorded. The total global economic impact
has declined by 3% in the year 2018. Significant changes are also seen
in the GDP Losses that fell from 386 billion to 208.9 billion, marking a
change of 46%. Conflict deaths also reduced by 19% and the number of
refugees and internally displaced persons reduced by 12%.
Table 2 studies the composition of the global economic costs of
violence in the year 2018. GDP Losses and costs related to refugees fall
under the category of indirect costs because they are a part of the effects
of the war and often detected after the conflict has happened.
Along with Military expenditure, peacebuilding and peacekeeping
costs also come under the prevention costs. Peacekeeping operations
and peacebuilding are deemed of extreme importance while referring to
armed conflicts. Peacekeeping expenditure consists of the contribution
that the member country provides to the UN Peacekeeping force. This

170