撰写The reference news network reported on December 17.The website of Bloomberg News recently published an article entitled "Not Only Ukraine and Gaza: Wars are increasing all over the world" by Max Hastings. The article is excerpted as follows:
Recently, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London released the latest authoritative annual report "Armed Conflict Investigation". This survey estimates that we won’t have a very peaceful holiday. It paints a grim picture: violence is increasing in many places, and war has long hindered the achievement of peace. The survey focuses on regional conflicts, rather than the great power confrontation between China, Russia, the United States and their allies. The survey recorded 183 conflicts in 2023, the most in 30 years.
The survey stressed: "Difficult to solve is the biggest feature of contemporary global conflict situation." Non-state armed groups (Hamas in Gaza is only one of the most striking organizations) pose a great threat.
Although the threat of world wars like 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 is not imminent, the tension is increasing.
After the appalling atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, Israel launched an attack on Gaza. The risk that this action may trigger a larger conflict in the Middle East persists.
There are border conflicts all over the world, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is just the most destructive one. Azerbaijan occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region, prompting more than 100,000 Armenian residents to flee. Tensions between Russia and Georgia persist. The tension between Algeria and Morocco is the most serious since the beginning of modern times. In Pakistan, domestic terrorism has escalated and relations with the Indian government have become dangerously tense.
At the same time, the report of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said: "In fragile countries, the growing climate crisis continues to amplify the root causes of conflicts and institutional defects."
The intensity of the conflict is increasing year by year.
In the latest survey, the death toll increased by 14% and the violent incidents increased by 28%. In the description of the author of the investigation report, the world is "dominated by increasingly intractable conflicts and armed violence, with a surge of participants, complex and conflicting motives, global influence and accelerated climate change".
The International Committee of the Red Cross has listed 459 armed groups whose activities have aroused humanitarian concern, and 195 million people live under the total or partial control of these groups. Four-fifths of these groups have sufficient dominance in the local or local areas, and can collect taxes and provide a certain degree of public services.
In America, most conflicts are provoked by criminals who confront each other, especially those related to drug trade. In many countries in South America and Central America, criminal groups exercise more and more power than governments. For decades, many governments have launched the so-called war on drugs, but it has little impact on production or supply chain. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in many places, these actions have prompted criminal groups to arm themselves with increasingly deadly weapons. Most of these weapons are smuggled from the United States because they are easily available there.
In Eurasia, many conflicts are caused by territorial disputes left over from the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
It is not surprising that Ukraine remains the most violent place on earth, but Syria, Brazil, Myanmar, Mexico and Iraq are also torn apart by violence. In Nigeria, more than 10,000 people died of violence, most of them at the hands of "jihadists". In Somalia, more than 9,000 people died of violence. The number of refugees displaced by the war is shocking: there are more than 6 million in Syria, 5 million in Afghanistan and 1 million in Myanmar. (Compile/Qing Songzhu)
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