Latest Global Peace Index reflects a world progressively less peaceful as AI enables armies to kill more people more quickly and more cheaply
More than 181,000 people were killed in conflicts in 2025, with some 117 million displaced. Global military spending reached a record US$2.9 trillion. The report estimates the total economic cost of the violence at US$21.8 trillion, or 10.5 per cent of the global gross domestic product.
More alarmingly still, the report predicts a steady deterioration in the coming decades, not just because of Trumpian bellicosity and chronic conflict across sub-Saharan Africa, but because of the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping how conflicts evolve.