Figures and statistics leave us no room for doubt that armed conflicts around the world have considerably increased since the end of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1990s.
This rise contradicts all expectations, hopes, and aspirations that filled the hearts and minds of people when the Cold War ended three and a half decades ago.
These conflicts have also diversified, ranging from international to regional, sub-regional, and even local or internal within the same state.
One additional reason that we now know the number of conflicts in the world far better than before is the information and communications revolution, which has witnessed an unprecedented leap and qualitative transformation over the past few decades.
This revolution has made access to information much easier, not only for states and international or regional organizations, but also for small human communities and individuals wherever they are geographically located.
In light of these data, resorting to war as an option in international relations has recently become, in many cases, the first choice for some states and armed groups, instead of the use of force being a last resort, as stipulated in the UN Charter.
The UN Charter restricts the “right” to use force to a state’s defence of itself, whether individually or collectively, in the event of being subject to an aggression, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.
One defining feature of modern conflicts is the increasing role of advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This trend is evident in major wars of 2025, including the ongoing Israeli war in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Russia–Ukraine war since February 2022, and the Israeli war on Iran in June 2025.
Wars have shifted from traditional battles between armies, aircraft, and ships to conflicts dominated by advanced technological tools and AI-driven systems, such as drones and sophisticated missile systems, which sometimes overshadow conventional military forces.
Another feature of post-Cold War conflicts is that many of them continue for long periods. In addition, only a few have reached an end through negotiated settlements.
These realities on the ground reflect structural imbalances that characterize the international system, foremost of which is its profound weakness in terms of preventive diplomacy, that is, diplomacy aimed at preventing disputes or conflicts from escalating into full-scale war.
Another major issue is the international community’s inability to stop these wars and reach just, sustainable, and peaceful solutions to the disputes that triggered them in the first place.
The reasons for war have also evolved. In the past, wars between states were often driven by border disputes, territorial control, access to natural resources or strategic maritime routes, or reuniting divided national, ethnic, linguistic, religious, or tribal groups.
However, new reasons have emerged for post-Cold War wars, including, for example, the pursuit of destroying another state’s capabilities, whether generally or in a specific sector.
Furthermore, motives that some mistakenly believed had disappeared with the end of old-style colonialism after World War II have resurfaced, such as the desire to occupy another state and impose a particular political system upon it.
Another characteristic worth noting is that the scale of deliberate physical destruction and the systematic killing and harming of people in wars over the past three and a half decades is unprecedented in human history.
The gravity of this observation increases when we consider that rapid scientific and technological advances, including AI-driven tools, have provided destructive capabilities hundreds, if not thousands, of times greater than what existed before.
These tools, by their nature, lack human judgment and cannot distinguish between structure types or between people. For example, they cannot precisely target only military objectives while avoiding civilian or human service-related facilities such as schools and hospitals.
This has resulted in catastrophic outcomes, including large-scale killing of civilians, among them the elderly and the children, as well as the destruction of civilian facilities that serve large numbers of people.
Such destruction deprives residents of essential health, education, and other essential services for months or even for years.
Additionally, the negative humanitarian consequences of wars have multiplied in noticeable ways compared with the past. This is confirmed by studies and statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other credible governmental and non-governmental international organizations.
Among these humanitarian consequences is the sharp increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons forced to leave their countries or regions due to wars.
For example, around 12 million people in the Sudan have been displaced since the outbreak of successive waves of internal fighting following the ousting of former President Omar Al-Bashir on 11 April 2019.
Another example is the unprecedented increase in the number of people missing during and as a result of military operations. In Ukraine, these numbers reached around 150,000, according to estimates by the International Committee of the Red Cross, since the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war in February 2022.
Another observation, not less important than those previously mentioned, about the changing nature of wars is that many of the world’s armed conflicts after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US were linked to the issue of terrorism.
This connection was sometimes genuine, backed by undeniable evidence. At other times, “terrorism” was used as a pretext or justification for waging war, in an attempt to grant such wars a veneer of international legal or political legitimacy.
The real objective of launching wars in such cases was to intervene in another state’s internal affairs, occupy its territory, and install a political regime loyal to the occupying power.
The international community must recognize that wars, whether between states or civil conflicts, cannot be considered resolved unless they end with negotiated settlements accepted by all parties.
Conflicts that fail to address their underlying causes remain at risk of erupting again, potentially with even greater violence and destruction than before.
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