Security
The security component of the CDI compares rich countries on military actions that affect developing countries. Rewarded are contributions to international peacekeeping and forcible humanitarian interventions that have an international mandate—unlike the invasion of Iraq but like the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Countries also get points for protecting sea lanes for global trade, but lose them for exporting weapons to authoritarian regimes with heavy military spending.
|
Security FeaturesResources on Security |
|||
Security Details
Rich nations engage daily in activities that enhance or degrade the security of developing countries. They make or keep the peace in countries recently torn by conflict, and they occasionally make war. Their navies keep open sea lanes vital to international trade. But rich countries also supply developing-country armed forces with tanks and jets.
The CDI looks at three aspects of the security-development nexus. It tallies the financial and personnel contributions to peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, although it counts only operations approved by an international body such as the U.N. Security Council or NATO (thus the invasion of Iraq does not count). It also rewards countries that base naval fleets where they can secure sea lanes vital to international trade.
Finally, the Index penalizes some arms exports to undemocratic nations that spend heavily on weapons. Putting weapons in the hands of despots can increase repression at home and the temptation to launch military adventures abroad. When weapons are sold instead of being given to developing nations, this diverts money that might be better spent on teachers or transit systems. Still, because countries need guns as well as butter—arming a police force can strengthen the rule of law—the Index penalizes exports to some countries but not all.
Norway and New Zealand take the top spots on security—Norway for steady contributions to peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, and New Zealand for its assistance to the U.N.-approved action in 1999 to stop Indonesian oppression of East Timor. Despite earning points for flexing its military muscle near sea lanes, the United States scores below average overall for making only average contributions to approved international interventions and for its record as a leading arms merchant to Middle Eastern dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia. South Korea earns a perfect score on arms exports to developing countries (it has none) but lags otherwise because of its low international military profile.
For more, go Inside the Index.