Jedburgh
10-30-2005, 08:35 PM
Human Security Report 2005 (http://www.humansecurityreport.info/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=63[/URL)
The first Human Security Report presents a comprehensive and evidence-based portrait of global security. It identifies and examines major trends in global political violence; asks what factors drive these trends; and examines some of the consequences. It poses major challenges to conventional wisdom.
Over the past dozen years, the global security climate has changed in dramatic, positive, but largely unheralded ways. Civil wars, genocides and international crises have all declined sharply. International wars, now only a small minority of all conflicts, have been in steady decline for a much longer period, as have military coups and the average number of people killed per conflict per year.
The wars that dominated the headlines of the 1990s were real—and brutal—enough. But the global media have largely ignored the 100-odd conflicts that have quietly ended since 1988. During this period, more wars stopped than started. The extent of the change in global security following the end of the Cold War has been remarkable:
° The number of armed conflicts around the world has declined by more than 40% since the early 1990s.
° Between 1991 (the high point for the post–World War II period) and 2004, 28 armed struggles for self-determination started or restarted, while 43 were contained or ended. There were just 25 armed secessionist conflicts under way in 2004, the lowest number since 1976.
° Notwithstanding the horrors of Rwanda, Srebrenica and elsewhere, the number of genocides and politicides have plummeted by 80% since the 1988 high point.
° International crises, often harbingers of war, have declined by more than 70% since 1981.
° The dollar value of major international arms transfers has fallenl by 33% since 1990. Global military expenditure and troop numbers declined
sharply in the 1990s as well.
° The number of refugees dropped by some 45% since 1992, as more and more wars came to an end.
The first Human Security Report presents a comprehensive and evidence-based portrait of global security. It identifies and examines major trends in global political violence; asks what factors drive these trends; and examines some of the consequences. It poses major challenges to conventional wisdom.
Over the past dozen years, the global security climate has changed in dramatic, positive, but largely unheralded ways. Civil wars, genocides and international crises have all declined sharply. International wars, now only a small minority of all conflicts, have been in steady decline for a much longer period, as have military coups and the average number of people killed per conflict per year.
The wars that dominated the headlines of the 1990s were real—and brutal—enough. But the global media have largely ignored the 100-odd conflicts that have quietly ended since 1988. During this period, more wars stopped than started. The extent of the change in global security following the end of the Cold War has been remarkable:
° The number of armed conflicts around the world has declined by more than 40% since the early 1990s.
° Between 1991 (the high point for the post–World War II period) and 2004, 28 armed struggles for self-determination started or restarted, while 43 were contained or ended. There were just 25 armed secessionist conflicts under way in 2004, the lowest number since 1976.
° Notwithstanding the horrors of Rwanda, Srebrenica and elsewhere, the number of genocides and politicides have plummeted by 80% since the 1988 high point.
° International crises, often harbingers of war, have declined by more than 70% since 1981.
° The dollar value of major international arms transfers has fallenl by 33% since 1990. Global military expenditure and troop numbers declined
sharply in the 1990s as well.
° The number of refugees dropped by some 45% since 1992, as more and more wars came to an end.