2. Armed conflict and peace processes

Chapter:

2. Armed conflict and peace processes

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2017

Author(s):

Ian Davis

This chapter reports on recent trends in armed conflict and peace processes. In section I the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) provides an overview of the past ten years of active armed conflicts, with a focus on 2016. The number of active armed conflicts decreased from 52 to 49 in 2016. Despite this reduction, 2016 is part of a trend towards a significantly larger number of conflicts in the past three years compared to the period 2007–13. Compared across a longer period, the number of armed conflicts in recent years has been equivalent to the period 1990–92. The periods 1990–92 and 2014–16 constitute two distinct peaks in the post-cold war era. Much of the increase in the number of conflicts in 2014–16 stems from the spread of the Islamic State (IS), which has often transformed already active conflicts, leading to them being recorded as new conflicts in the UCDP data.