I. Key general developments in the region

Chapter:

4. Armed conflict and peace processes in Asia and Oceania

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2021

Author(s):

Ian Davis

Seven countries in Asia and Oceania experienced active armed conflicts in 2020 (the same as in 2019)—three in South Asia: Afghanistan (major internationalized civil war), India (high intensity as a result of combined interstate border and subnational armed conflicts) and Pakistan (low-intensity interstate border and subnational armed conflicts), as discussed in section II; and four low-intensity subnational armed conflicts in South East Asia: Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand, as discussed in section III.¹ In the Philippines fatalities in the subnational armed conflict were likely surpassed by those arising from the high levels of violence against civilians in a ‘war on drugs’. All seven armed conflicts had lower conflict-related fatalities in 2020 than in 2019, and overall the reduction was close to 50 per cent as a result of conflict-related fatalities being halved in Afghanistan (see table 4.1).