ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ

Recent years have seen a series of high-intensity and far-reaching conflicts dominate global affairs, on a scale not seen in decades. In 2026, fighting is still ongoing in Ukraine and Sudan, while a fragile ceasefire has been implemented in Gaza. In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro was seized in a U.S. military operation at the beginning of the year, while U.S. President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on seven European countries to gain control of Greenland, a threat he later backed down on.

Elsewhere, peace agreements have been implemented between Israel and Hamas, Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But fighting is ongoing in Eastern DR Congo, and reportedly hundreds have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire was signed, underlining that there often is a stark contrast between written agreements and the reality on the ground. Furthermore, the U.S. government has been trying to mediate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, but so far without success.

U.S.-Israel war with Iran

On February 28, 2026, the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more central leaders. Iran responded by launching retaliatory strikes against Israel and countries in the Middle East hosting U.S. military bases. Moreover, the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon launched missiles against Israel following the assassination of Khamenei, upon which Israel responded with retaliatory airstrikes against southern Lebanon and Beirut, as well as a ground offensive into southern Lebanon.  As of mid-March, at least 1,348 people had been killed in Iran during the strikes, including 168 people at a girl's school in Tehran. The war has led to a considerable reduction of traffic through the essential Strait of Hormuz, through which about one third of the global seaborne crude oil, one fifth of the global seaborne liquefied natural gas (LNG), and other commodities pass. This is having serious implications for the global economy, with galloping energy prices and consumer and producer costs.

The war comes after the 12-day war in June 2025, in which the U.S. and Israel significantly damaged Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. Reportedly, nearly 700 Iranian and 30 Israeli civilians, as well as key Iranian nuclear physicists, were killed in the process. The attack came after the Iran-led Axis of Resistance was damaged in 2024, with Hamas weakened after the war in Gaza, Hezbollah diminished after the assassination of its leader Hasan Nasrallah and an Israeli insurgency into Lebanon, and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in late 2024. In late 2025, protests erupted in Iran over high inflation that quickly spread into nationwide protests against the regime. The protests were met brutally by the Iranian government, with at least 6,000 reported dead. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to intervene militarily if Iran continued to kill protesters, but ultimately other, sometimes contradictory explanations were given for the launch of the strikes in February 2026.

Russia-Ukraine war

The Russia-Ukraine War, especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, has become the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Since the invasion, some sources estimate that up to 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine, with the number of combatant fatalities on Ukrainian side estimated to be up to 140,000, with 15,000 of these being civilians. Russia continued to make territorial gains through 2025 and the beginning of 2026, albeit at a slow pace.

Politically, some considerable changes happened off the battlefield, with the United States radically changing its approach to the war under Trump’s second presidency compared to under Biden. The U.S. has reduced its financial aid to Ukraine, Trump has on several occasions blamed Ukraine for playing a role in starting the war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was publicly criticized at a White House-meeting in February 2025, and Trump has taken a friendlier tone toward Putin, the two meeting in Alaska in August 2025. The U.S has been trying to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, with Ukraine signaling willingness to sign should certain conditions be met, but Russia’s demands remain unacceptable to Ukraine and Europe. At the time of writing, Ukraine and Russia are holding direct talks in Abu Dhabi, but substantial differences remain before a peace agreement can be reached.

Israel-Hamas war

The war between Israel and Hamas came to a fractious halt in October 2025 when a ceasefire was brokered between the two sides, leaving more than half of Gaza’s territory under Israeli control, with the rest controlled by Hamas. However, there have been attacks from both Israel and Hamas since then, with more than 500 Palestinians and four Israeli reported dead as of early February 2026. Following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 265 taken hostage, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza, destroying most of the buildings in the subsequent shelling, and more than 70,000 reported dead in Gaza. However, figures from other sources vary, and some sources, including a study by The Lancet, have found Gaza’s figure to be an undercount as there is a large number of Palestinians still missing and it does not include deaths from preventable causes such as disease, malnutrition, or health service disruption. This is an example of how the number of fatalities and casualties in conflicts must be taken with care.

The war and the blockade of humanitarian aid have created a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with over 90 percent of the population having been internally displaced (many multiple times) since the invasion began, and all in Gaza now face high levels of food insecurity, with almost a quarter at risk of famine. Over 70 percent of all structures (including 92 percent of housing) have been destroyed or damaged, while over half of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare facilities are closed, and those in operation are only partially functional.

Sudan civil war

The civil war in Sudan started in April 2023, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke away from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), who had been leading the government since their military coup in 2021. Since then, the war has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in terms of absolute numbers. Over 10 million people have been internally displaced since fighting began, with three million more fleeing to neighboring countries. Sudan has an estimated population of around 50 million, with around two-thirds of these in need of assistance as of mid-2025, and its incredibly young population means that 16 million of those in need are children.

The war has been overshadowed by human rights violations, including sexual violence, and several international sources have determined that the RSF and its allies have committed acts of genocide in Darfur, in addition to other war crimes. Malnutrition is also extensive, and Sudan is one of the only places in the world confirmed to be facing famine. In January 2025, the Sudanese Doctor’s Union reported that 522,000 infants had died due to malnutrition in just over 18 months of war - before 2023, Sudan already had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, with some 60,000 infant deaths annually. While most of these deaths are not included in conflict casualty statistics, this spike is just one of countless examples of how the conflict is exacerbating the myriad of challenges already facing the Sudanese population.

Myanmar civil war

Since 2021, Myanmar’s civil war has resulted in over 90,000 deaths, over three million people internally displaced, and another million fleeing the country. Myanmar has a population of roughly 55 million people, is one of the poorest countries in Asia, and since independence in 1948 it has experienced a near-permanent series of insurgencies across the country. The current war is considered the most fragmented in the world, involving at least 1,600 different ethnic and political groups with a multitude of alliances and goals. The largest force is the Burmese military, the Tatmadaw, who took control of the government in a coup in 2021, following a decade of democratization, and their seizure of power saw major public protests and an escalation of fighting across the country. The Burmese government-in-exile (NUG) overwhelmingly supports the rebels.

After it looked like the rebels were about to gain the upper hand during 2024, the tides turned in 2025. With significant backing from China, who fears the consequences of a regime collapse, the military was able to push back the rebels on several fronts, but the rebels still hold important positions in parts of the country. Moreover, the military junta held elections in early 2026 that were widely disregarded as sham elections with most of the opposition either in jail or in exile. Throughout the civil war, the military junta has been accused of numerous war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons, bombing of civilians, and destruction of property, as well as crimes against humanity such as wartime sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and torture.

Insurgencies and instability in Africa

From West to East, the African continent is plagued by violence and political instability. In the Sahel, particularly in Mali and Burkina Faso, al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State are active, with 14 percent of Mali’s population exposed to conflict. Both countries, as well as Niger, have seen military coup d’etats over the past five years, but the new leaders have failed to significantly push back the Islamists. Experts fear that terrorist activity will spread to other countries in the region, such as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Benin. Elsewhere, northern Nigeria has been plagued by Islamist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State (IS), as well as by bandit groups. During Christmas 2025, the U.S. bombed alleged IS-militants in northwestern Nigeria to protect Christians, but Boko Haram and the IS have been more active in the northeast of the country. The Nigerian military has been unable to enforce security in the region, their brutal tactics often making matters worse.

In the Horn of Africa, tensions have been growing between Ethiopia and Eritrea, with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stating his intention to give the landlocked country access to the Red Sea, which Eritrea fears could mean an invasion. Ethiopia, on the other hand, accuses Eritrea of arming rebel groups in the country. Ethiopia is still damaged after the civil war in the Tigray region between 2020 and 2022, with millions still internally displaced. A war between Africa’s second most populous country and Eritrea could throw an already unstable region into chaos. In neighboring Somalia, Al-Shabaab continues to wreak havoc, with the country topping the Fragile States Index, while fighting continues in Eastern DR Congo between the Congolese army and the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23, despite Trump having brokered a ceasefire agreement between the two in June 2025.