Armed conflict across the Pacific

This chapter provides an overview of armed conflict across the Pacific Basin, emphasizing varied patterns of violence. There are distinct regional patterns, as Oceania and Southeast Asia have featured mostly ethnic violence, while Latin American armed conflicts tend to be ideological, in which communist rebels clash with authoritarian states. The chapter illustrates and explains these divergent regional patterns. It also emphasizes some good news—the decline of all forms of armed conflict across the Pacific. Of all parts of the Pacific Basin, East Asia has seen a unique number of interstate wars and remains subject to the most serious tensions. Oceania, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have seen a range of intrastate conflicts, generating large numbers of casualties and destroying local economies. It is interesting to note that different regions of the Pacific Basin have been home to distinct forms of intrastate conflicts.