Posted on 05/26/2005 10:26:58 AM PDT by Strategerist
The number of wars has been declining sharply since the end of the Cold War. There were about fifty wars going on in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Ten years later, there were half as many. Even after the 911 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq, the number of wars continued to decline. Today, it is about twenty. We track sixteen as active (Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Sudan, Colombia, Kashmir, Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Congo, Somalia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Chechnya, Burundi and Thailand.), plus about a dozen that are really low level, just ended (and still liable to restart) or just dormant for the moment.
There's been a lot less fighting, and people killed, every decade since the 1940s. A lot of this has to do with nuclear weapons. The major nations, those that can afford nuclear weapons, and a lot of non-nuclear ones, are more reluctant to get into a fight with each other. It's still likely that, some day, one of the growing number of nations with nukes, will use one against a neighbor. That will reinforce, for everyone, the need to be careful with nuclear weapons, and wars in general.
Many of today's war are taking place in areas where no one is in charge, and no one wants to be in charge. Africa is a favorite spot for these kind of wars, but even here, the peacekeeping troops eventually show up.
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Also is a lesson in not letting your thinking be led around by the media; just because you get technicolor coverage on a dozen networks 24 hours a day of every car bomb in Iraq and every belt bomb in Israel doesn't mean the world is getting more violent by the day.
I can't remember which Native American Cheif said it but he had it right when he said, "Glory is like a dead fish. It glitters and shines in the moonlight but still stinks."
Chechnya is not an independent country thus the war is Russia. There is also active hostilities in Georgia, through out its break away provinces.
Sure, it's hard to beat 60 million in 6 years.
It's Bush's fault. We have to take action, NOW!
You're right - I blame Bush, and I demand an investigation!
But now we can kill half the world's population in less than a day.
Point is it's gone down each decade; 50s had less than the 40s, 60s had less than the 50s, 70s had less than the 60s, and so on.
There're sad sacks crawling all over the place trying desperately to find bad news where none exists. I'll confess to being a 'peacenik' from way back but in my old age I prefer the kind in the Uzi slogan "peace through superior fire power".
I mean, whatever works.
Peace through strength works.
Liberals on the wrong side of history again.
I think most of the listed would be called disputes/conflicts rather than wars, unless it was to mean civil war. The only ongoing war in international terms between two states may be the war between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.
Chechenya once declared independence after the collapse of Soviet Union, while it was not recognized by any state. In terms of war, it would probably not fit in the category anyways since the opposition group no longer has control of Chechenya and without the security force with a stable region under cobtrol to defend it. Therefore, it would fit in the category of conflict, or dispute at its best.
Chechnya declared independence from Russia not the SU, since it was part of Russia not the SU.
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