Why Are There So Many Wars

Today’s article will discuss why so many recent conflicts have happened over the past few years. With not as many wars happening previously, for the last few decades, a total of 183 conflicts are currently ongoing.

Information on these conflicts and wars is provided by the Armed Conflict Survey 2023, produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which is available for public purchase on Amazon.

Why so many wars are happening can be divided into five reasons for these conflicts.

They are in no particular order concerning the relevance of territorial disputes, the rise of organised crime, and nonstate groups, including terrorists and climate change.

Climate change is also a leading factor in the Arab Spring of 2010 to 2013 and the reason for the ongoing conflict within the Middle East.

For example, In Syria, water scarcity in 2006 contributed to the looming civil war.

Severe drought devastated many rural areas, causing farmers to migrate to cities for new opportunities.

Instead, they were met with unemployment and poverty, fuelling the many grievances against the central government.

Finally, we also have the rise of authoritarian regimes, which often try to stay in power by seeking foreign wars to distract the public.

This kind of tactic is nothing new and has been used by kings, emperors and dictators throughout history.

For instance, Henry V of England, who reigned from 1413 to 1422, was England’s second Lancastrian king, and a cadet house of the main Plantagenet dynasty was overthrown in 1399 by Henry iV, father of Henry V, and England’s first Lancastrian king who ruled from 1399 until he died in 1413.

In response to the crisis caused by his father’s usurping the throne from Richard II of England, who ruled from 1377 to 1399, Henry V restarted the Hundred Years War and successfully conquered northern France to distract and prevent a civil war with the English kingdom.

The Hundred Years War itself is a part of a series of conflicts between the kingdom of England and France stretching back even before the Norman conquest in 1066. The Hundred Years War itself lasted from 1337 to 1453.

The civil war, known as the Wars of the Roses from 1455 to 1487, was successfully delayed due to Henry V’s actions. This historical example is…