Israel tops the Global Militarization Index (GMI), while Azerbaijan is the eighth. GMI was issued by Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC).

Israel, Singapore, Syria, Russia, Jordan, Cyprus, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Saudi-Arabia are now the top ten of the Index.

The updated Index shows the degree of militarization of 135 countries for the year 2011.  Nearly all other Middle Eastern states can be found among the first 40 positions.  Iran, for instance, is in position 34.

The worrying arms race between Caucasian neighbor states Azerbaijan and Armenia caused Azerbaijan to rise up onto position eight of the top ten militarized countries and Armenia to arrive at position 23.

“To contain the conflict, prevention measures will have to be reinforced, arms deliveries stopped and disarmament efforts increased,” said Jan Grebe, Project Leader at BICC.