 The Ethnic Conflict Research Digest |
1998, Vol. 1 No. 1 . |
States in Armed Conflict, 1995 |
Edited by Margareta Sollenberg. |
Report 93, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, 33pp, 1996.
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| This is the eight edition of States in Armed Conflict, produced by the Conflict Data Project of the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. The aim of the project is to monitor the level of armed conflict throughout the world. The report is presented in two parts. The first provides a longitudinal review of armed conflict for each year between 1989 and 1995. The second part presents data on major armed conflict during the year 1995. There were ninety-six armed conflicts between 1989 and 1995, in sixty-six locations. Thirty-five armed conflicts in thirty locations were recorded during 1995, making that the lowest year for the entire period of the project. Wallensteen and Sollenberg suggest that 'the turbulent initial phase of the post-Cold War period now seems to have come to an end.' They go further: they point to the success of a number of peace agreements during 1995 - in Southern Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. The optimistic tone of the report is encapsulated in the title of the first part - 'The End of International War?' A major benefit of the project to serious researchers is the classification of armed conflicts by the authors. These are defined as: minor armed conflicts, where there are at least twenty-five battle related deaths during the year, and less than one thousand deaths during the course of the conflict; there were twelve such conflicts in 1995; intermediate armed conflicts, which had more than one thousand deaths during the course of the conflict, but less than one thousand in the particular year; there were 17 in 1995; and wars, defined as conflicts with more than one thousand casualties during a particular year, of which there were six in 1995. The Uppsala Report has already become an essential tool for comparative researchers. The annual presentation of the data provides a unique opportunity for the longitudinal analysis of armed violence, and the data are available on disc at nominal cost from . |
John Darby, University of Ulster
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