Rich nations engage daily in activities that enhance or degrade the security of people in developing countries. They make or keep the peace in countries recently torn by conflict and protect vital international trade routes. They also supply developing countries with tanks and jets, which may underpin conflict.
The CDI looks at four aspects of the security-development nexus. It tallies the financial and personnel contributions to peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, although it counts only operations approved by an international body such as the UN Security Council or NATO. It also rewards countries for basing naval fleets where they can secure sea lanes, and for participating in international security regimes that promote nonproliferation, disarmament, and international rule of law—such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Ottawa Convention on land mines, and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Finally, the CDI penalizes some exports of arms, especially to nations that are undemocratic and which spend heavily on the military. Putting weapons in the hands of despots can increase repression at home and the temptation to launch military adventures abroad. In developing nations, buying weapons diverts money that might be better spent on teachers or transport systems.
Norway, Denmark, and New Zealand take the top spots on security for their significant contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions and for ratifying major arms control treaties and the Rome Statute which created the International Criminal Court. Australia, France, the United States, and United Kingdom have also contributed to international peacekeeping—but are (apart from Australia) penalized for exporting a large amount of arms to poor and undemocratic countries, as are the Czech Republic, and Sweden. Sweden, which reports the highest level of arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments and does not participate in protecting global sea lanes, is in last place of the security component. Australia and South Korea score badly because they do not make arms exports data publically available. New Zealand and Japan earn perfect scores on arms exports to developing countries (they have none), but Japan lags on other parts of this indicator because of its low international military profile. The United States is penalized for not ratifying the Ottawa Convention and loses additional points as the only CDI country which is not party to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty or ICC.
For more on security, explore the fragile states topic, related publications, and experts.