The Institute of Economics, Society and Peace in the Middle East Studies at the Western Galilee Academic College published a study on Wednesday ranking Middle East countries based on their overall resilience. The index relied on six main criteria: economic, social, gender equality, the degree of openness to globalization, ethnic variance, and religious variance. The researchers, from a wide range of fields, only used quantifiable figures published by credible sources, for example, the World Bank.
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Israel, based on the results, is the strongest country in the region, followed by Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in consecutive order. The countries at the bottom of the list are Jordan, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. It should be noted that the strength index does not account for military might, rather might reflecting the degree of overall welfare for the people of each respective country.
In terms of economic might, Israel ranked fifth, behind Qatar, Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in descending order. Israel also ranked fifth in the degree of openness to globalization, behind Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Iran.
Economic might accounted for factors such as total GDP, GDP per capita, population size, the ratio of children and elderly relative to the size of the civilian workforce, and many other measures.
As for social strength, Israel, as one of the only democracies in the Middle East, ranked first by a wide margin over the other countries, the vast majority of which are ruled by totalitarian regimes or monarchies.
Another variable examined by the researchers was the degree of religious variance in the respective populations. In this category, Israel ranked sixth out of 33 countries, showing religious variance to a considerable degree.
The study also explored the correlation between levels of violence and militancy and the six aforementioned measures representing the countries' strength, and they examined which variables indeed influence violence and militancy. The main factor impacting the degree of violence and militancy, the study indicated, is the degree of religious variance, while ethnic variance was shown to moderate violence. These findings, it should be noted, should be applied with reservation due to the relatively small sample size of countries.
President of the Western Galilee Academic College, Prof. Nissim Ben-David, said: "The present study is the first of its kind and is unique because it helps us identify the balances of power and the strengths and weaknesses of the countries in the Middle East, Israel among them."
According to Ben-David, this initial study lays the groundwork for future research seeking to gauge Middle Eastern countries' readiness for peace, and which will identify the factors facilitating and blocking the implementation of sustainable peace between Israel and its neighbors.
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