Worldwide, the number of displaced people, most due to war, is at a record high. Fighting involving Islamists elsewhere in Africa often doesn’t entail thousands of deaths but drives millions of people from their homes and causes humanitarian devastation.Īfghanistan’s violence levels have sharply dropped since the Taliban seized power in August, but starvation, caused mostly by Western policies, could leave more Afghans dead-including millions of children-than past decades of fighting. Millions of Ethiopians suffer acute food insecurity because of the country’s civil war.

Yemen’s conflict kills more people, mostly women and young children, due to starvation or preventable disease than violence. Still, if these are silver linings, they’re awfully thin.īattle deaths, after all, tell just a fraction of the story.

Besides, one shouldn’t overstate Washington’s sway even in its post-Cold War heyday absent an invasion, it has always struggled to bend recalcitrant leaders (former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, for example) to its will. presidents have refrained from toppling enemies by force is a good thing. The 1990s bloodletting in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Somalia the post-9/11 Afghanistan and Iraq wars Sri Lanka’s murderous campaign against the Tamils and the collapse of Libya and South Sudan all happened at a time of-and, in some cases, thanks to-a dominant U.S.-led West. That recent U.S. For the most part, 21st-century wars are less lethal than their 20th-century predecessors.Ī more cautious United States might also have an upside. More local conflicts rage than ever, but they tend to be of lower intensity. Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin menacing Ukraine, states rarely go to war with one another. The number of major wars has also descended from a recent peak. According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, figures through the end of 2020 show battle deaths are down from seven years ago, mostly because Syria’s terrible slaughter has largely subsided. The number of people killed in fighting worldwide has mostly declined since 2014-if you count only those dying directly in combat. ambition on the global stage, COVID-19, and a climate emergency, it’s easy to see a world careening off the tracks.īut maybe one could argue things are better than they seem.Īfter all, by some measures, war is in retreat. Capitol, horrific bloodshed in Ethiopia, a Taliban triumph in Afghanistan, great-power showdowns over Ukraine and Taiwan amid dwindling U.S.

After a year that saw an assault on the U.S.

Largest current armed conflict