ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of important trends in armed global conflict. It chapter presents some new analyses that indicate that the downward trend in conflict is not the result of effective prevention of new conflicts. The UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset defines conflict as “a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths”. Internationalized Internal Armed ConflictInternationalized internal armed conflict involves the government of a state against one or more internal actors with outside intervention by at least one other state in support of either the government or the internal opposition groups. The five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an example, as is the current civil war in Iraq.
