Finland: World's Most Stable Country

[saxitoxin]

The Finnish government and nation is least at risk of total collapse.

Congratulations, Finland!



Finland was named the world's most stable nation by the Fund for Peace this year.

Also "Most Improved" went to Kyrgyzstan, and "Most Worsened" went to Libya, which fell what is, apparently, a record-setting 61 spots (of 192 possible spots) after a certain Nobel Peace Prize recipient bombed them into the stone age.

http://www.fundforpeace.org/global/

All rise for the Finnish national anthem -

[saxitoxin]

The ranking is an amalgam of data from 12 different categories. The category leaders were:

Least at Risk of External Attack - New Zealand (U.S. is #2, Australia is #3)
Least Corruption / Most Transparency - Switzerland
Least Demographic Pressures - Iceland
Least Problem with Refugees / Internally Displaced Persons - Singapore (nowhere to displace to)
Least Problem with Minority Grievances - Iceland (no minorities to grieve)
Least Brain Drain / External Migration - U.S. (last place is Zimbabwe)
Least Problem with Economic Inequality - Sweden
Least Poverty - Sweden (Haiti worst ... Iceland worst among NATO states)
Best Public Services - Luxembourg (Japan worst among developed states)
Best Human Rights - Luxembourg
Least Problem with Militias / Death Squads / Terrorists - Finland (Argentina scores better than UK in this category)
Least Problem with Factionalized Elites - Switzerland

[Phatscotty]

Quick! Everybody flock to Finland! We are loading up trucks and boats right now with people who are willing to risk their lives to get to Finland!

[2dimes]

Any chance Somolia is getting a bad rap here?

[saxitoxin]

Quick! Everybody flock to Finland! We are loading up trucks and boats right now with people who are willing to risk their lives to get to Finland!

Scott is fibbing because the US has the least problem with external migration as noted in my second post.

Any chance Somolia is getting a bad rap here?

I prefer not to refer to Somalia as "the world's least stable country" but as "the world's most exciting country."

[Phatscotty]

Quick! Everybody flock to Finland! We are loading up trucks and boats right now with people who are willing to risk their lives to get to Finland!

Scott is fibbing because the US has the least problem with external migration as noted in my second post.

Any chance Somolia is getting a bad rap here?

I prefer not to refer to Somalia as "the world's least stable country" but as "the world's most exciting country."

Let's redistribute a bunch of Somalians to Finland, and redistribute a bunch of Finns to Somalia, out of fairness, and let's make it a reality TV show!

[2dimes]

Natty must be better known than I thought. I know that would factor into me not wanting to invade Finland.

Agreed on Somalia, we should go check out the clubs there.

[saxitoxin]

Agreed on Somalia, we should go check out the clubs there.

I could be mistaken but I think they use machetes, not clubs.

[2dimes]

That's ok, I like restaraunts better anyways. Do you think they have any good taco places?

[natty dread]

Let's redistribute a bunch of Somalians to Finland,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_com ... in_Finland

[/]

How often does an entire nation collapse anyways?
Enough to draw these kind of probabilities?
(Not rhetorical questions, what I'm getting at is betting pools.)

[Pedronicus]

I prefer not to refer to Somalia as "the world's least stable country" but as "the world's most exciting country."

Especially if your chosen method of transport to Somalia is a boat

[spurgistan]

I always suspected Tommy Heinsohn was an undercover Finn.

[saxitoxin]

How often does an entire nation collapse anyways?
Enough to draw these kind of probabilities?
(Not rhetorical questions, what I'm getting at is betting pools.)

Good question/point ... the only examples of which I can think are Somalia and Rwanda.













Oh, and THE MAYA.

[Chigga]

The ranking is an amalgam of data from 12 different categories. The category leaders were:

Least at Risk of External Attack - New Zealand (U.S. is #2, Australia is #3)
Least Corruption / Most Transparency - Switzerland
Least Demographic Pressures - Iceland
Least Problem with Refugees / Internally Displaced Persons - Singapore (nowhere to displace to)
Least Problem with Minority Grievances - Iceland (no minorities to grieve)
Least Brain Drain / External Migration - U.S. (last place is Zimbabwe)
Least Problem with Economic Inequality - Sweden
Least Poverty - Sweden (Haiti worst ... Iceland worst among NATO states)
Best Public Services - Luxembourg (Japan worst among developed states)
Best Human Rights - Luxembourg
Least Problem with Militias / Death Squads / Terrorists - Finland (Argentina scores better than UK in this category)
Least Problem with Factionalized Elites - Switzerland

interesting... I'm surprised the US is #2 to least at risk of external attack. I mean, what about 9/11???
congrats to Switzerland for being least corrupt. they should be the world model of a successful nation, not the US
LOL so Iceland is the most uniracial country? I guess no one wants to live there.
I'm also surprised by Singapore's least problem with refugees... I thought they receive a lot of Chinese and Indonesian refugees.
lol least external migration... is South Africa somewhere in the top 5 (I expected them to be rank 1)
Greatest Problem with Economic Inequality... China and India?

[saxitoxin]

The ranking is an amalgam of data from 12 different categories. The category leaders were:

Least at Risk of External Attack - New Zealand (U.S. is #2, Australia is #3)
Least Corruption / Most Transparency - Switzerland
Least Demographic Pressures - Iceland
Least Problem with Refugees / Internally Displaced Persons - Singapore (nowhere to displace to)
Least Problem with Minority Grievances - Iceland (no minorities to grieve)
Least Brain Drain / External Migration - U.S. (last place is Zimbabwe)
Least Problem with Economic Inequality - Sweden
Least Poverty - Sweden (Haiti worst ... Iceland worst among NATO states)
Best Public Services - Luxembourg (Japan worst among developed states)
Best Human Rights - Luxembourg
Least Problem with Militias / Death Squads / Terrorists - Finland (Argentina scores better than UK in this category)
Least Problem with Factionalized Elites - Switzerland

interesting... I'm surprised the US is #2 to least at risk of external attack. I mean, what about 9/11???
congrats to Switzerland for being least corrupt. they should be the world model of a successful nation, not the US
LOL so Iceland is the most uniracial country? I guess no one wants to live there.
I'm also surprised by Singapore's least problem with refugees... I thought they receive a lot of Chinese and Indonesian refugees.
lol least external migration... is South Africa somewhere in the top 5 (I expected them to be rank 1)
Greatest Problem with Economic Inequality... China and India?

Sorry, the actual wording was a little more obtuse ... "Risk of Intervention by External Actors" and broadly encompassed a nation's potential adversaries juxtaposed against those which had the capability to symmetrically or assymetrically influence the nation's policies or standing through a violent attack during the year 2011. I assume the U.S. high rankings have to do with the fact that the U.S. has many adversaries but is heavily defended and remotely located and difficult to get to; Australia and New Zealand have pretty light footprints on the world stage so don't generate much passion about attacking them and they're also off in the hinterlands. Canada also scored well here, presumably - again - due to geographic isolation.

The spreadsheet is on the website but pretty much the worst five in just about every category were nations in sub-Saharan Africa, except South Africa itself.

[jonesthecurl]

I prefer not to refer to Somalia as "the world's least stable country" but as "the world's most exciting country."

Especially if your chosen method of transport to Somalia is a boat

Wouldn't the fins keep the boat stable?