World Sinks Again Into Endless Wars: Unprecedented Record of Armed Conflicts Since World War II; Why Did Global Security Order Collapse?

If while following the news and social media you feel that conflict, bloodshed and violence worldwide have surged compared with the past, your sixth sense is entirely right. Since the end of World War II in 1945, the international community has never witnessed so many armed battles blazing simultaneously across the globe, a frightening situation resulting from the redefinition of the balance of power among the superpowers...

Five drivers of the spread of conflicts in the world

If, while monitoring the news and social networks, you feel that the amount of conflict, bloodshed and violence around the world has increased exponentially compared to the past, your sixth sense is working perfectly; Because since the end of the Second World War in 1945, the international community has never witnessed this volume of armed battles flaring up at the same time in all corners of the globe; A terrible situation that is the result of redefining the balance of power between superpowers, the internationalization of civil wars, the disintegration of weak governments, the cheapening of weapons with drones and artificial intelligence, as well as the transformation of domestic politics into identity and existential battles.

According to Ambassador Arjan, Newsweek magazine wrote that according to the statistics of the "Uppsala Conflict Data Program", 65 major armed wars were recorded in the last year alone, in eight of which the official armies of the countries directly engaged in hand-to-hand combat with each other.

When the Second World War ended in 1945 with tens of millions of dead, the destruction of major cities, and the complete collapse of economies, structures such as the United Nations, military pacts, and economic convergences were created to resolve differences before they escalated into gunfire.

Although wars did not stop completely, direct battles between the great powers largely ceased, and an illusion arose in the West that humanity was leaving its barbarism behind; The illusion that has now been dispelled and five key variables explain why the fighting has spread from Ukraine and the Gaza Strip to Ethiopia and Myanmar.

The transformation of the world order and the erosion of international containment levers

According to data from the Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO), there were only two active direct interstate conflicts in 2023, but this number rose to eight in 2025, the highest since 1946.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States enjoyed an unprecedented military and economic influence in a unipolar period, which, although it did not make the world safe, severely limited the space for the regional powers to attack the neighbors' borders; Because the aggressors did not find many international supporters for their diplomatic or military cover.

Now this unified order has collapsed; The United States under President Donald Trump is clearly retreating from the role of the world's gendarme to consolidate its influence in the Western Hemisphere, Russia is disrupting the European security order in Ukraine, China is offering an alternative economic pole as the world's second superpower, and the United Nations is paralyzed by Security Council competition, so that no new peacekeeping mission has been approved since 2014.

Globalization of local wars and spread to commercial arteries

The competition between extra-regional powers has caused local wars to take on an international nature.

The country of Yemen is a clear symbol of this transformation; A land whose internal battle became a laboratory for the competition of foreign actors; Where the Ansarullah movement, relying on the leverage of blocking shipping in the Bab al-Mandab strait, inflicted costly blows on the American and British fleets, and is now targeting Saudi energy arteries so that a local battle is directly tied to the crisis of the Strait of Hormuz and the global oil supply chain; A trend that, according to the global peace index, has marked a 175% increase in internationalized civil wars since 2010.

In addition, the erosion of national sovereignty has caused the disintegration of weak countries; Currently, the 65 recorded wars of the world are concentrated only in the geography of 35 countries, so that the country of Myanmar is engaged in five civil wars at the same time, and in Africa, from Congo and Sudan to Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso, government armies are surrounded by dozens of militia groups, rebels and armed cartels.

Cheap weapons, the drone revolution and the lethality of identity politics

Military technology has made warfare far cheaper and more accessible than ever before.

Attacks that in the past required tens of millions of dollars worth of fighter jets or ultra-advanced missiles are now carried out by a few paramilitary forces with homemade commercial drones and simple explosives; A fact that has led to a staggering 11,540 percent jump in drone attacks between 2018 and 2025.

The arrival of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies has reduced these barriers again; Entropic AI Labs recently disclosed that users in Yemen have used cloud AI systems to write guidance and navigation codes for rockets and ballistic missiles, and according to expert reports, regional resistance groups are using blockchain platforms to fund unsupervised banking networks.

Finally, the transformation of politics into an "existential" matter and the linking of power with ethnic, racial and religious divisions have made reconciliation impossible; The event that took place in Ethiopia after power tensions between the Tigray, Oromo and Amhara tribes led to a two-year war with more than 600,000 deaths, and now, with the violation of the ceasefire, it has been bloodied once again; Because losing in politics is interpreted as a complete cleansing of identity in the field of life.