Kira Schacht, DW: How war has changed since 1989
After the Cold War ended, the world hoped for an era of peace. But things turned out differently. Now, 30 years after the historic fall of the Berlin Wall that shifted power balances, wars are more complex than ever.
The twentieth century was dominated by wars. An estimated 80 million people died in two world wars. Then there was the Cold War: an arms race between the USA and Russia. In Europe and large parts of the world, two hostile sides faced each other. In Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America, the global powers financed bloody proxy wars.
Peaceful revolutions finally brought down the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Cold War was declared over. "We hoped that after the end of the cold war, there would be an era of peace," says Sarah Brockmeier, UN peacekeeping expert at the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based think tank.
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WNU Editor: The part of this study that raised my eyebrows is that military spending is now at an all time low.
2 comments:
Street protest and minor conflicts and war are one continuum.
Having a major World War takes the steam out of local conflicts for a 1/2 gen or gen. There is a lot a killing obviously and some local conflicts are masked by counting as 1 big war as in WW2.
So IMO the stats are are calculated somewhat wrong in part.
Certainly during World War 2 there were local wars such as the Croats versus the Serbs or everyone against the Jews (Poland, Ukraine, FDR) Borders were redrawn in WW2 in Eastern Europe twice.
My best friend, now dead, was Lithuanian. He told me that his large family get togethers always ended up the same way. Loud arguments, some pushing and shoving and all over long past issues from back home that went back for generations. Stuff like, 'well back in 1840s bastards from your village raided my family's village killing and raping, you dirty bastards .....' and so on.
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