IN BRIEF
- Australia rose four places overall despite one of the sharpest deteriorations in terrorism impact.
- The report found conflicts are becoming more internationalised and increasingly harder to resolve.
Australia has climbed four places in a major global peace ranking, as conflict around the world reaches levels not seen since the end of the Second World War.
The 2026 Global Peace Index ranked Australia as the world’s 20th most peaceful country, despite finding global peacefulness had deteriorated for the 12th consecutive year.
Published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the report found 99 countries became less peaceful over the past year, the highest number recorded since the index began 20 years ago, while 73 per cent of countries are now less peaceful than when the rankings were first published in 2007.
The number of active, state-based conflicts reached 61 globally, the highest level since the end of WWII.
Australia improves overall despite sharp deterioration on terrorism ranking
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Despite improving overall, the report found Australia recorded one of the largest deteriorations globally on its terrorism impact indicator, which it linked to the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Australia’s terrorism impact score worsened from 1.845 to 2.493, causing the country to fall 14 places to 133rd on that individual measure.
But terrorism impact is only one of 23 indicators used in the index.
Improvements in Australia’s militarisation score, particularly lower weapons imports and exports, largely offset that deterioration, allowing Australia’s overall score to improve slightly from 1.604 to 1.602 and lift four places in the rankings.
Institute for Economics and Peace chief research officer and report author Thomas Morgan said Australia’s rise was partly driven by broader global deterioration.
"As a high number of countries deteriorated on the index this year, Australia’s very small improvement led to it improving by four places on the ranking."
Technology accelerating change
The report details the 'great fragmentation', or a new geopolitical era where traditional powers lose influence, middle powers become more influential and international institutions weaken.
It identifies Australia as an established middle power whose influence has barely grown in two decades, while countries including Indonesia, Türkiye, Mexico and Gulf states accelerated their influence.
Morgan said the shift would create a more crowded and contested Indo-Pacific region.
"In practice, middle powers have nearly doubled since 1991 while trade restrictions have tripled since 2019," he said.
"For Australia it means disputes become harder to settle and supply chains become more exposed, but also presents an opportunity to take a more active role in promoting peacefulness and revitalising multilateral institutions."
The report also found conflict is becoming increasingly shaped by technology.
Drone attacks increased by more than 11,500 per cent between 2018 and 2025, while artificial intelligence has reduced military targeting times from one day to seconds.
Professor Toby Walsh, chief scientist at UNSW’s AI Institute, said artificial intelligence was becoming a disruptive force economically, socially and militarily.
"In a military sense, we only have to look at conflicts in Iran and Ukraine to see how technology is changing the character of war."
Walsh said the speed of AI-assisted decision-making created difficult moral and legal questions.
"It’s hard not to worry that mistakes are a consequence of changing that speed."
Conflicts are becoming harder to end
While conflict deaths remain below recent peaks, Morgan said the record number of conflicts reflected wars becoming more numerous, more internationalised and increasingly difficult to resolve.
Conflict deaths reached more than 181,000 in 2025, but remain below the 2023 peak of more than 309,000.
The report found the share of conflicts ending in peace agreements has fallen from 23 per cent in the 1970s to about four per cent in the 2010s.
Walsh said his biggest concern was not the technology itself, but regulation failing to keep pace.
"We have an opportunity now to put in the guardrails and rules to regulate artificial intelligence… Let’s not let the market decide," he said.
Iceland retained its position as the world’s most peaceful country for the 19th consecutive year, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland, Slovenia and Ireland.
For the first time, Russia ranked as the least peaceful country globally, followed by Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Israel.
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