…the biggest argument against the \u201cperpetual peace\u201d\u009d hypothesis is ideological. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, we have been witnessing the revival of an old ideology \u201d\u201d political Islam \u201d\u201d that may ultimately prove to be as violent and menacing to western values as fascism and communism once were. Already that ideology has been in large measure responsible for a marked upturn in war, political violence and especially terrorism since around 2010.<\/p>\n
War is back, and much of it is holy war. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, total fatalities resulting from armed conflict have increased by a factor of four since 2010. In 2000, according to my calculations, 35 per cent of the fatalities in armed conflicts were in wars involving Muslims. In 2014 it was 79 per cent.<\/p>\n
This is not the clash of civilisations Samuel Huntington prophesied. Much of today\u2019s conflict is between Muslims. Religion is certainly not the sole cause for increasing conflict, but it is more than a coincidence that global warfare is so concentrated in the Islamic world.<\/p>\n