Jane's stablity list: part two

The list goes on...

11 New Zealand

One sign of stability is relations with neighbors, and the "People's Republic of Aotearoa," is lucky that it doesn't actually have any, Fiji and Australia being hundreds of miles away. There's a Maori independence movement, but nobody really takes it seriously, and while everyone is unhappy with the Treaty of Waitangi, nobody really can find anything much better. While Prime Minister Clark has come out in favor of changing to a republic, no one takes that seriously.

New Zealand will probably remain as it is.

12 Denmark

Denmark is a reminant of the Viking kingdom of Scandinavia, and since it's heroic resistance to tyranny during World War II, it has been pretty much been left alone. It's decided to keep it's own currency but has given up most of it's soveregnty to the EU.

13 Austria

The Second Republic has been unified since the Russians left in the 1950s, and with the exception of sanctions imposed when former Nazis (Kurt Waldheim) and neo-Nazis (Joerg Haider) were elected to high office, Austria has been pretty much inoffensive to much of the world.

14 Andorra

This strange entity has only had an actual counstitution since the 1990s, and due to oppression by the EU, to which it is not a member, the main industry, smuggling between Spain and France, has been way down and the people are suffering. However, the possibility of revolution or conquest by either of it's neighbors is low.

15 Germany

With the European Union getting more and more power, the reason for the continued existance of this Federal Republic is getting more and more tenuous. However the Lands that make up the country don't want to lose their collective clout. It will stay.

16 Iceland

This should be in the top ten. No neighbors, no energy problems, no minorities, Democratic. I don't see why this is way down here, unless geologial instablility means political instablity. Huge volcanoes sometimes go off and ruin everything.

17 Switzerland

The paragon of neutrality (it didn't even join the UN until just a few years ago), Switzerland is under enormous pressure from the EU, which surrounds it. However, the same coalition of parties has been running things since World War II. Recent innovations like a federal chancellor have shaken things up quite a bit, and the last election was particularly nasty.

18 Portugal

Shorn of it's empire and much of it's sovereignty, this small, impoverished land has been chugging along at low gear since the establishment of democracy in 1974.

19 Australia

The reason that this is 19 and Portugual is 18 is that there hasn't been a coup here since 1975 while there hasn't been a coup there since 1974. "Jane's" might have just put the names of countries on slips of paper and thrown them up in the air.

20 Norway

Having been there once, I can assure you that Norway is rather boring. It has twice refused to join the EU but has been forced to follow most of it's diktats anyway. It, like Iceland, is a member of the "Common European Space" and hasn't done anything offensive on the international scene in quite a few years.

•  tip jar.

  please?

  by YoursTruly on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:42:43 AM PDT

•  My Mom is Norwegian, dammit!

  You can't go around saying Norway is boring.  It is.  Achingly so.  But you can't go around saying it.

  by bugscuffle on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:51:19 AM PDT

  •  Have you heard of

    Snöhetta? They are a rather new architecture office founded by a Norwegian, Swiss guy (wtf are they called anyway?) and a Longhorn.

    But, they are definately not making Oslo boring.

    by borkitekt on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 06:18:44 AM PDT

•  This list is like something an intern...

  ....would do to get a letter of recommendation at the end of the summer.  I wouldn't give 'em the letter, personally!  Gibraltar is, of course, inherently unstable because it can be effectively blockaded by Spain and that's not just a theoretical possibility.  New Zealand is politically stable but it's economically volatile because it's much more of an agricultural economy than most other wealthy countries, and that has its ups and downs.  Among Western European states without ethnic fissures, there's no basis for placing any one ahead of another, especially since the EU will smooth out any economic bumps--if NZ were in the EU, I'd take back my reservations about callint it stable, for instance.

  by Rich in PA on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:53:48 AM PDT