Released in the U.S. on Tuesday, the 2008 GPI complements and expands on the inaugural 2007 rankings. By continuing the rankings annually, the developers and proponents of the GPI hope to show trends that can advise government’s and organisations on the best ways to attain peace.

Ranked at the top of the list are primarily countries in Western Europe with little internal or external conflict, low levels of militarism, and high gross domestic products.

The top spot this year belonged to Iceland, one of the 19 new countries calculated in the index, followed by Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and Japan.

At the bottom of the list, unsurprisingly, is Iraq — ravaged by internal conflicts and a U.S.-led occupation. Rounding out the bottom five, in ascending order, were Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Israel and Chad — all countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The U.S., due to the highest level of militarisation in the world and two ongoing foreign wars, is ranked in the bottom third at 97th place.

The GPI is aimed primarily at influencing governments to critically look at their own policies as they relate to the policies of the nations at the top of the index, said GPI president at CEO Clyde McConaghy at the release of the results during a meeting at a Washington think tank.

McConaghy hopes that the ranking will be a sort of "Premiership table" — the standings of the vaunted British Premier football league — where nations will strive to get to the top of the list. But in this case, said McConaghy, reaching the top quarter of the rankings is more important than attaining the top spot.

Freedom of the press, for instance, correlates strongly with the level of peace, according to Andrew Williamson of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the analysis branch of the Economist magazine charged with organising the index and analysing the results. Governments seeking to advance their countries in the rankings should, therefore, be encouraged to promote freedom of the press.

The results and accompanying reports, however, are not intended to single out any governments and embarrass them, said Leo Abruzzese, the North American editorial director of EIU.

"We are looking at a country’s level of peace by how it measures up against other countries," showing its level of "relative peace", Abbruzzese said. "We did not come at this with the objective of proving any agenda."

The discussion paper that accompanied the results, "The Study of Industries that Prosper in Peace — ’The Peace Industry’", shows that peace can be an economic boon. By doing so, this year’s index has widened its scope to also show businesses that they too can benefit from peace.

"Initial research indicates that there is a strong relationship between a nation’s ranking in peacefulness and the size of its retail sector, stock market and tourism industry, and changes in peacefulness can be used to calculate changes in market sizes," said the discussion paper.

McConaghy noted that the World Economic Forum’s Business Competitiveness index and the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index correlate strongly with the GPI.

"There are entire industries that can thrive in peace and therefore have common values and therefore have a role to play," he said.

The second edition of the GPI coincided with the creation of the organisation that launched it, the Institute for Economics and Peace, dedicated to establishing the ties between economic prosperity and peace.

The extension of the rankings into a second year also allows the list’s developers to show trends as well as demonstrate that the rankings are working as movement on the list mirrors real-world developments.

"The index did pick up most of the changes we’ve intended," said Abruzzese, pointing to the example of Kenya.

Kenya fell 16 places to 119th after a disputed election caused organised political violence that killed about 600 people and displaced a quarter of a million. The ranking drop was the largest of the GPI.

The next top fallers were Paraguay, Turkey, Morocco and Bahrain — each falling around ten places.

The largest riser was Angola, which saw a stabilising political situation and a drop in homicides. The stability, said the Angola section of the GPI analysis, could be related to an increase in oil revenues that allow the ruling party to appease different interests.

The list of top five risers was rounded off by Indonesia, India, Uzbekistan, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The level of peace worldwide has increased slightly, according to Abruzzese.

"One of the conclusions we’ve come to is that the world is slightly — I emphasise slightly — more peaceful in 2007 than 2006," he said.

McConaghy emphasised that the challenges of the future rely on a peaceful setting and cooperation between nations.

"We believe that the major issues facing humanity would be more effectively resolved if there were a greater level of peace," he said. "Fundamentally, peace is a prerequisite for survival in the 21st century."

He noted that the largest threats to humanity as a whole — climate change, water table degradation, overpopulation, and decreasing biodiversity — are problems that don’t abide by borders and therefore require intense cooperation in international settings.