In the first phase of developing the index, the SSI team will bring together and provide the rational for the weighting of key indicators of political instability.
Indicators will cover the following key areas:
· Democracy
· Treatment of minorities
· Use of force
· Inequality (economic/social)
· Resources and climate
· Hybrid and asymmetric threats
· Demographic movements & shifts
· Illicit trade & financial flows
· Arms race (technology)
We will revise the overall rankings periodically and connect these into contemporary debates on sustainable security. The periodical update will allow for year on year comparisons among states; it will also provide an opportunity to identify regional trends. Providing this global, regional and state-based outlook will enable us to explore previously raised questions by the SSI such as why similar countries differ in the index and why some states do well overall, but perform badly in some crucial indicators. The team will also encourage more dedicated work considering that the drivers of security have varying impacts over each country. Additional qualitative case studies will shed more light on what countries can learn from each other in terms of shaping their policies towards sustainable security. These interpretations will be based on the existing data and methodologies related to security which will be amplified across social and other media platforms as outlined above. Our contribution will be primarily in honing the existing methodologies in the field to help demonstrate the vulnerabilities of societies with regards to poor governance, inequality and other key drivers of long term insecurity. We will also focus attention to salient questions facing policymakers with regards to the protection of vulnerable groups post-COVID-19 including drivers and triggers of forced migration, the reversal of ethnic cleansing and relevant key indicators, as well as durable solutions in refugee crises.