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Sri Lanka’s strong gains in both internal and external peace enabled it to jump up 18 positions in the latest Global Peace Index, the second-largest rank improvement overall.  In a ranking of 163 countries, compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Syria has been named the least peaceful, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. On the other hand, Iceland was ranked as the world’s most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Austria. Sri Lanka is ranked 97, up 18 places from last year’s rank of 114, the greatest upswing in its score in the region and the report attributed the country’s increased peacefulness to “better relations with neighbouring countries, particularly India”. “The country successfully conducted two sets of elections in 2015— presidential in January and parliamentary in August which brought a reformist administration with a strong mandate. The country’s increased peacefulness is also due to better r