Below are the power rankings for world leaders for the overall year. Some explanation of the chart is probably necessary. In this the third year of the World Leader Power Rankings, there were five top ten lists. 24 world leaders from 24 countries made the list at some point this year. Coronavirus changed the landscape somewhat paving the way for new faces
The "Score" is based on the leaders' ranking on those lists- 10 points for a 1st place finish on a list and so on, then the total score divided by 9. "On List" is the number of times a leader made the top ten list. "High" is the leader's highest rank on any one list and "low" is the lowest rank. Leaders who didn't make the list at least once will have a dash by Low.
| Rank | Leader | Country | Score | On List | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xi Jiangping | China | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Jacinda Ardern | New Zealand | 9 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | Lee Hsien Loong | Singapore | 5.8 | 4 | 2 | - |
| 4 | Katrin Jakobsdottir | Iceland | 5 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 5 | Moon Jae-in | South Korea | 5 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 6 | Nguyen Phu Trong | Vietnam | 3.8 | 4 | 4 | - |
| 7 | Angela Merkel | Germany | 3 | 2 | 2 | - |
| 8 | Vladimir Putin | Russia | 2.4 | 2 | 4 | - |
| 9 | Tsai Ing-wen | Taiwan | 2.4 | 2 | 4 | - |
| 10 | Kim Jong-un | North Korea | 1.6 | 2 | 5 | - |
| 11 | Shinzo Abe | Japan | 1.4 | 3 | 7 | - |
| 12 | Mette Frederiksen | Denmark | 1 | 1 | 6 | - |
| 13 | Abiy Ahmed | Ethiopia | 0.8 | 1 | 7 | - |
| 14 | Tamim bin Hamad al Thani | Qatar | 0.8 | 1 | 7 | - |
| 15 | Paul Kagame | Rwanda | 0.6 | 1 | 8 | - |
| 16 | Silveria Jacobs | St. Maarten | 0.6 | 1 | 8 | - |
| 17 | Haitham bin Tariq | Oman | 0.6 | 1 | 8 | - |
| 18 | Khaltmaagiin Battulga | Mongolia | 0.6 | 1 | 8 | - |
| 19 | Boris Johnson | United Kingdom | 0.4 | 1 | 9 | - |
| 20 | Hun Sen | Cambodia | 0.4 | 1 | 9 | - |
| 21 | Narendra Modi | India | 0.2 | 1 | 10 | - |
| 22 | Giorgi Gakharim | Georgia | 0.2 | 1 | 10 | - |
| 23 | Ilham Aliyev | Armenia | 0.2 | 1 | 10 | - |
| 24 | Prayut Chan-o-cha | Thailand | 0.2 | 3 | 10 | - |
1. Xi fell back to the pack this year, finishing in a tie with Ardern of New Zealand. Xi bungled the initial response to the virus, stonewalling the U.S. and unleashing the virus on the world. But China eventually and apparently handled the virus well.
2. Ardern was a star in handling the virus yet maintaining a free democracy.
3. Singapore has also done well with the virus although with less of that free and democratic stuff.
4. Iceland is a small geographically isolated country, but Katrin did well with the virus from early on.
5. South Korea has many more people than Iceland, but has done well compared to other high population countries. They have done it by efficient testing and mask wearing.
6. Vietnam joins some other Asian countries on the list in preventing more deaths from the virus.
7. Merkel looked like she had Germany going in the right direction at one point, but that changed during the winter.
8. The virus didn't take over Russia until a little later than other countries, so Putin made the list earlier in the pandemic, but he has been thoroughly off the list since.
9. I made Taiwan eligible for the last two lists and Tsai made both of them. Taiwan has been a model of how to tackle the virus.
10. Kim Jong-un claims the virus hasn't come to North Korea, but who knows. The virus made Kim mostly irrelevant this year. It absolutely crippled his old lover, U.S. President Donald Trump, who didn't make the list even once because of the way he bungled the virus.
11. Japan had some success in spots with the virus. Abe retired this year.
12. Fredericksen's Denmark also had a brief moment of success with the virus, but Europe has not done well on the whole..
13. Abiy Ahmed was looking good when the year started . He looked like he would change Ethiopia for the better and he won the Nobel Peace Prize. But the situation in Ethiopia has become much more violent of late.
14. Middle East countries such as Qatar have handled the virus better than the Americans have.
15. The virus was slow to spread in Africa, so it looked like Kagame had saved Rwanda until it didn't.
16. Jacobs was an early star as St. Maarten wasn't hit hard right away.
17. Haitham of Oman was another Middle Eastern ruler who did relatively better with the virus for a moment.
18. On the doorstep of China, Mongolia had managed to slow the spread of the virus until things changed lately.
19. In a disastrous year for Britain, they at least rolled out a vaccine just before a new strain hit. Other normal world powers have also handled hte virus very poorly and didn't even make the list this year.
20. Despite Hun Sen's autocratic ways, Cambodia is another Asian country that seems to be doing better with the virus.
21. The virus hit India a little later, but once it did, it ravaged Modi's country.
22. Georgia is another country in which things looked like they were better for a brief moment.
23. Armenia had a pretty terrible year, but- though they lost the war with Azerbaijan- they're winning the coronavirus battle.
24. Thailand is another Asian country that seems to be doing better with coronavirus than most.
No comments:
Post a Comment