Sultanate third most stable country in Arab world

WASHINGTON: The Sultanate has maintained its ranking for the second consecutive year as the third most stable and least fragile state in the Arab world in 2017. In the report published by the Fund for Peace report, a Washington-based non-profit organisation, Oman stood 45th in the world level in the Fragile and Stable State Index with 52.5 points. The index, which measures how far the state is close or away from the brink of collapse, may sound the alarm to avoid any dangers and put an end to domestic or external conflicts. The index’s ranks are based on 12 indicators of state vulnerability namely external interventions, group grievance, security apparatus, parallel state security, human rights and rule of law, factionalised elites, state legitimacy conditions, public services, poverty and economic decline, uneven economic development, human flight and brain drain, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and finally demographic pressures. Finland came the first in the least fragile and most stable country on the index which includes 178 countries. — ONA