Rating The Countries Most At Risk For Terrorist Attacks

Global analysts at Maplecroft has published a ranking of those countries most at risk for terrorist attacks:

The Terrorism Risk Index (TRI) has been developed by Maplecroft for companies to assess terrorism risks to their international assets. The index measures not only the risks of an attack, but also the chances of mass casualties occurring.

Iraq (1), Afghanistan (2), Pakistan (3) and Somalia (4) top the ranking of 196 countries and are rated, along with Lebanon (5), India (6), Algeria (7), Colombia (8) and Thailand (9), as the only extreme risk nations.

Other countries mentioned:

The Philippines (10), Turkey (14), Russia (15), Nigeria (24) and Spain (34) all rate as high risk countries, whilst the UK (41), China (43), USA (46) and France (56) are considered medium risk. Countries rated at low risk include Germany (81), Canada (116) and Australia (120).

I thought this was interesting:

Ranked 11th in last year's Terrorism Risk Index, Thailand has now dropped two places in the ranking and into the extreme risk category. Terrorism incidents in Thailand's restive Muslim south - such as the October 2009 bomb attacks in Sungai Kolok - largely account for the country's rating.

Muslim terrorists in Thailand--a problem that no doubt could be solved if only the Thai government would acquiesce to Muslim separatists. Is that what the future holds for Great Britain and other countries in Europe.

Reuters, in an article on the report, notes that Israel was rated at 17--making terrorism a larger risk in Russia than in Israel.

Israel is not considered an extreme risk for terrorism--no thanks to the international community, which is full of ideas on what Israel cannot do to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks, but has no advice to offer on what Israel can do.

There is a short interview with Eva Molyneux, a Political Analyst at Maplecroft.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Terrorism.