This year’s Global Terrorism Index showed a continuing trend of a decline in terrorism, with deaths from terrorism falling for the third consecutive year, after peaking in 2014. The total number of deaths fell by 27% between 2016 and 2017, with the largest falls occurring in Iraq and Syria. The overall trend of a decline in terrorism deaths reflects the increased emphasis placed on countering terrorism around the world since the surge in violence in 2013. However, whilst the GTI finds that the global impact from terrorism is on the decline, it also shows that terrorism is still widespread, and even getting worse in some regions.
A fall in the intensity of conflict in the Middle East, the decline of ISIL, and an increase in counterterrorism activity has meant that the total number of deaths from terrorism declined for the third consecutive year, falling by 27% to 18,814 deaths in 2017. The year on year fall in deaths was mirrored by a fall in the number of attacks, which fell 23% from 2016 to 2017. Although the number of deaths from terrorism is now at its lowest level since 2013, it is still a major global threat. Deaths remain substantially higher than a decade ago, and are still nearly three times as high as the number recorded in 2001. Terrorism also remains a widespread problem, with 67 countries experiencing at least one death.
On the newely-published list of the global terrorism index, Bosnia and Herzegovina has recorded an improvement for 12 places. On the same list, other countries in the region have remained in earlier positions or were rated better than a year earlier. It is particularly interesting and observed the emergence of right-wing terrorism in the world.
The global terrorism index is measured by factors influencing terrorist events, and is divided into seven groups at a level of risk of terrorism. The first group with very high risk includes the countries taking the leading 6 positions on the GTI list.
It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity. The index combines a number of factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers.
The fifth edition of the Global Terrorism Index was published in November 2017. The study covered analysis of 163 countries. The global GTI scored deteriorated by four percent from 2015 to 2016.
Overall, deaths from terrorism have fallen for the second consecutive year, resulting in a 22 percent decrease since the peak in 2014. At an all-time high, 106 countries experienced at least one terrorist attack. Of these, 77 countries recorded at least one death, an increase from 65 countries in 2015.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria, and Pakistan remain the top five countries most affected by terrorism, however, Nigeria also saw the greatest reduction in deaths.
