Violent conflict is increasing in multiple parts of the world. In addition to Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel, and the Israeli offensive on Gaza, raising the specter of a wider war in the Middle East, there has been a surge in violence across Syria, including a wave of armed drone attacks that threatened U.S. troops stationed there. In the Caucasus in late September, Azerbaijan seized the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh\u2014forcing an estimated 150,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their historical home in the territory and setting the stage for renewed fighting with Armenia. Meanwhile, in Africa, the civil war in Sudan rages on, conflict has returned to Ethiopia, and a military takeover of Niger in July was the sixth coup across the Sahel and West Africa since 2020. <\/p>\n
In fact, according to an analysis of data gathered by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, conducted by the Peace Research Institute Oslo, the number, intensity, and length of conflicts worldwide is at its highest level since before the end of the Cold War. The study found that there were 55 active conflicts in 2022, with the average one lasting about eight to 11 years, a substantial increase from the 33 active conflicts lasting an average of seven years a decade earlier.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the increase in conflicts, it has been more than a decade since an internationally mediated comprehensive peace deal has been brokered to end a war. UN-led or UN-assisted political processes in Libya, Sudan, and Yemen have stalled or collapsed. Seemingly frozen conflicts\u2014in countries including Ethiopia, Israel, and Myanmar\u2014are thawing at an alarming pace. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, high-intensity conflict has even returned to Europe, which had previously enjoyed several decades of relative peace and stability. Alongside the proliferation of war has come record levels of human upheaval. In 2022, a quarter of the world\u2019s population\u2014two billion people\u2014lived in conflict-affected areas. The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide reached a record 108 million by the start of 2023.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A World at War: What Is Behind the Global Explosion of Violent Conflict? https:\/\/t.co\/2ZXtqyHqSn<\/a> via @ForeignAffairs<\/a><\/p>\n — Nino Brodin (@Orgetorix) October 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n