Wars 'less frequent, less deadly' BBC News 2005/10/17 Wars around the world are both less frequent and less deadly since the end of the Cold War, a new report claims. The Human Security Report found a decline in every form of political violence except terrorism since 1992. "A lot of the data we have in this report is extraordinary," its director, former UN official Andrew Mack, said. It found the number of armed conflicts had fallen by more than 40% in the past 13 years, while the number of very deadly wars had fallen by 80%. The study says many common beliefs about contemporary conflict are "myths" - such as that 90% of those killed in current wars are civilians, or that women are disproportionately victimised. The report credits intervention by the United Nations, plus the end of colonialism and the Cold War, as the main reasons for the decline in conflict. [more] http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4350860.stm - - - - - - - - A critic points out that the UN is much better at keeping conflicts fomr continuing than staring in the first place. Other important causes of decline can be cited: growth of global capitalism and the expanding embrace of peaceful dispute resolution like democracy. The end of Malthusian famine fears - the fundamental cause of WWII - is another. (Kudos to science and technology.) The 12 page overview of the report is well worth reading. http://www.humansecurity-chs.org/finalreport/index.html This isn't news to military analysts; its old history._This has been the direction of things for a thousand years. On this view, the UN has nothing to do with it: it has everything to do with development in ethics, tactics, and technology, and other institutions. Here's a summary of casualty rates since 1600 AD:_ Down, steadily,_ except for brief spikes when improvements in battlefield tactics lagged behind improvements in firepower._ But the secular trend is down, down, down._ _http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/gabrmetz/table1.gif_ Wars are becoming less destructive towards civilians, too. Humanity's doing better job of looking out for us than we care to congratulate ourselves for!
Re: Re: GOOD NEWS-historic decline in war around the world! I like that, decimon: when a parody ISN'T parody! The trouble with conflating war with totalitarian rule, however, is that these monsters mostly murdered through inflicting famine. Starving people can't fight if they're too week to leave distant provinces and fight their slave keepers. Thus, this issue is rather different from war.
Re: Re: Re: GOOD NEWS-historic decline in war around the world! Not here addressing the internal horrors. They exported "Revolution" all over the world.
Como que hay menos guerra? Quien Dice? Less War around the world? How many years ago was this written? 1. Iraq 2. Afganistan
Re: Como que hay menos guerra? Quien Dice? What crimped you the wrong way? I & A aren't much in the way of war as contrasted with the past.
Como que hay menos guerra? Quien Dice? One war is one war to many. That is what I mean, no beef, just that.
