:

Quick & Dirty Guide to Wars In The World

November 13, 2005: Despite the media fascination with Iraq, warfare continues to decline across the globe. It's not that peace is breaking out everywhere, its more a matter of mass slaughter slowing down into civil disorder. There's no big money behind violence in most of the world. The exceptions are those few areas where the government (Sudan and Iran being the only cases at the moment), or non-government groups back widespread violence. Drug gangs (Colombia, Afghanistan) and Islamic radicals (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) are the main cause of violence elsewhere.

Current wars are listed in alphabetical orders. Text underneath briefly describes current status. Click on country name for more details.

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban fighting back, but continues losing ground as new government slowly extends control. But independent minded tribes, warlords and drug gangs still stand in the way of peace, prosperity and true national unity.

ALGERIA

Islamic rebels fading away, but a general uprising looms because of dissatisfaction with the old revolutionaries that refuse to honor election results or share power.

ANGOLA

Main rebel group (UNITA) defeated, but some smaller ones have appeared to fight over oil wealth.

BALKANS

The Greater Albania Movement is driven by part time Albanian nationalists, full time gangsters and a growing number of Islamic radicals.Bosnia continues to attract Islamic terrorists.

CENTRAL ASIA

Dictators brew rebellion by suppressing democrats and Islamic radicals.

CHINA

The confrontation with Taiwan continues, as do hostilities with neighbors, separatists, dissenters and ancient enemies. China speeds up modernization of its armed forces.

COLOMBIA

After over three decades, leftist rebels losing support, recruits and territory.

CONGO

Multiple tribal and political militias, plus an increasing number of bandits, continue to roam the countryside.

INDIA-PAKISTAN

Kashmir is but one of many rebellions that beset the region. But India and Pakistan have nukes, making escalation a potential catastrophe. Recent peace talks have lowered the possibility of war, but both sides continue an arms race.

INDONESIA

Separatism, pirates, Islamic terrorists and government corruption create an increasingly volatile situation.

IRAN

Minority of Islamic conservatives have veto power over the majority of reformers. The supply of peaceful solutions is drying up. After that comes another revolution. Meanwhile, the Islamic conservatives are determined to build nuclear weapons.

IRAQ

Sunni Arab minority makes peace with the majority Kurds and Shia Arabs. But Sunni Arab Islamic radicals still back terrorism attacks against government and Shia Arabs (who are considered heretics).

ISRAEL

Jewish and Palestinian radicals continue to confront peacemakers. The Palestinian people got tired of terrorism and are trying to work out a peace deal with Israel.

IVORY COAST

The north and the south fight over money, religion and power.

KOREA

After half a century, North Korea continues to destroy its economy to maintain armed forces capable of invading South Korea.

KURDISH WAR

Kurds continue 5,000 year struggle to form their own country.

LIBERIA

Chaos, collapse and tired of fighting. There is peace, but no prosperity.

MICRONESIA

Several "failed states" (countries with populations that cannot govern themselves) are found here.

NEPAL

Radical communist rebels battle to overthrow a popular monarchy.

NIGERIA

Too many tribes, too much oil money and too much corruption creates too much violence.

POTENTIAL HOT SPOTS

Various places where the local situation is warming up and might turn into a war.

PHILIPPINES

Islamic minority in the south wants it's own country, and expulsion of non-Moslems. Communist rebels in the north fight for social justice and a dictatorship.

RUSSIA

Rebuilding and reforming the Soviet era armed forces and fighting gangsters and Islamic radicals in Chechnya.

RWANDA & BURUNDI

War between better organized and more aggressive Tutsis and more numerous Hutu tribes. It's been going on for centuries.

SOMALIA

A failed state. It was never a country, but a collection of clans and tribes that fight each other constantly over land and other economic issues.Attempting to establish a new government.

SRI LANKA

Tamil minority (19th century economic migrants from southern India) battle to partition the island.

SUDAN

Moslems in the north try to suppress separatist tendencies among Christians in the south. Complicated by oil fields in the south, and Moslem government attempts to drive Christians from oil region. Battles over land in the west pit Arab herders against black Sudanese farmers. Both sides are Moslem, but the government is backing the Arabs.

THAILAND

Moslems in the south have a different religion than most Thais, and are different ethnically as well (they are Malays). Islamic radicalism has arrived, along with an armed effort to create a separate Islamic state among the few million people in the area.

UGANDA

Religion and tribalism combine to create a persistent rebellion in the north, which is aided by Sudan.

WAR ON TERROR

International terrorism has created a international backlash and a war unlike any other.