ABSTRACT
Fifty years after the end of World War II warfare continues unabated across most of the world. In 1995, wars were waged in 32 countries. Iraq, Colombia and the Philippines each saw two wars occurring simultaneously in their lands. In addition, there were fifteen armed conflicts whose intensity fell only narrowly below the threshold of war. The total number of wars has steadily increased since 1945. In the 1950s there were an average of twelve wars per year. In the 1960s and 1970s this average reached 22 and 32, respectively, and by the 1980s an average of 40 wars were fought yearly. The persistence of war in the 1990s demonstrates that warfare since the Second World War was by no means solely a byproduct of the bipolar conflict and its so-called proxy wars. The end of East-West Conflict did not lead to the termination of numerous ongoing wars. Warfare in the 1990s indicates additional trends which pose cause for concern.
