Why Wars and Conflicts Never Seem to End These Days
It's 2025, and yet the sound of gunfire continues to echo across the globe. Right now, there are about 34 major conflicts happening worldwide - the highest number since World War II. The war between Ukraine and Russia, the horrors in Gaza, Sudan's civil war... Every time I turn on the news, my heart sinks a little more.
So why can't humanity just stop fighting? Let's dig into this together.
The Cold, Hard Numbers of War in 2025
First, we need to face just how bad things really are. The Russia-Ukraine war alone has killed about 350,000 people directly since 2022, with total casualties reaching 1.5 million on both sides. These aren't just statistics. Every single number represents someone's family member, someone's friend. It's absolutely heartbreaking when you think about it.
Sudan's civil war has become the world's largest humanitarian crisis - over 12 million people (more than a third of the population) have fled their homes, and over a quarter face severe food shortages. The fact that 522,000 infants died from malnutrition in just 18 months shows just how cruel war really is.
The Dangerous Games Superpowers Play
One of the biggest reasons wars keep happening? The power struggles between major nations. The competition between the U.S. and China, Russia's hunger for expanding its influence - it's all making the world increasingly unstable.
The U.S.-China rivalry has gone way beyond economic competition. Taiwan, the South China Sea, semiconductor supremacy... there are just too many flashpoints between these two giants. Things aren't looking great on the Korean Peninsula either, with North Korea strengthening its cooperation with Russia and tensions rising.
This all feels eerily similar to the 1930s. Back then, major powers trying to expand their influence eventually led to the catastrophe of World War II. British Prime Minister Chamberlain pursued appeasement with Nazi Germany, but this failed to stop Hitler's ambitions and led to an even bigger war. If the international community fails to properly respond to aggressive moves by Russia or China today, history might repeat itself.
Resources, Climate, and the Fight for Survival
Another characteristic of 21st-century warfare is that fights over resources have gotten fiercer. It's not just oil and gas anymore - now even water and food are becoming causes for war.
Climate change is making everything worse. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and Earth is dangerously close to the 1.5-degree tipping point. As droughts and floods destroy agriculture, people are forced to move in search of somewhere livable. These mass migrations create new conflicts.
Here's the twisted irony: war itself accounts for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Ukraine war's first year alone produced more emissions than the entire Czech Republic. So we're stuck in this vicious cycle where war and climate crisis keep making each other worse.
The Technology Paradox
As technology advances, war has become both easier to wage and more destructive. AI-powered cyber attacks, drone warfare, autonomous weapon systems - the barrier to entry for warfare has gotten lower.
Drone technology in particular has completely changed how wars are fought. As we've seen in Ukraine, you can now cause massive damage at relatively low cost. The scary part? These technologies can fall into the hands of terrorist groups or criminal organizations.
Just like how the atomic bomb ended World War II but also brought humanity to the brink of extinction, today's cutting-edge tech is a double-edged sword.
Ethnic and Religious Hatred - The Chain That Won't Break
So many modern conflicts stem from ethnic and religious tensions. Sunni-Shia conflicts in the Middle East, ethnic violence in Myanmar, tribal clashes in Africa... these conflicts have histories spanning decades, sometimes centuries.
In Myanmar, over 2,600 armed groups have been active since 2021. Most of them formed along ethnic or religious lines. Once the chain of hatred starts, it's incredibly hard to break. Revenge breeds revenge, blood calls for more blood - the vicious cycle just keeps going.
The Powerlessness of the International Community
What's most frustrating is how powerless the international community seems in stopping these conflicts. The UN was created to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," but it fails to act whenever major powers' interests clash.
The UN Security Council gets paralyzed by vetoes, the International Criminal Court lacks teeth because major powers won't join. The fact that only 8.9% of international news in 2023 covered conflicts, with 96.5% of that focused on Ukraine, shows how many conflicts don't even get international attention.
Humanity Forgetting the Lessons of WWII
What worries me most is that we're forgetting history's lessons. World War II left us with two contradictory lessons: "war must be avoided at all costs" and "democracies must be ready to resist aggression".
When the war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, people believed such horrors would never happen again. And actually, Europe has enjoyed its longest period of peace in history since then. But 80 years later, it feels like we're sliding back into an age of war.
As the generation that lived through WWII disappears, so does the living memory of war's horrors. Principles like President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points - "open diplomacy without secret treaties," "national self-determination" - are being ignored again.
What's especially worrying is the rising tensions between nuclear-armed states. Clashes between nuclear powers like India and Pakistan, North Korea's nuclear threats, conflicts over Iran's nuclear program... one mistake could endanger all of humanity.
There's Still Hope, Though
The reality is grim, but it's not completely hopeless. As historian Michael Howard said, "peace is a task which has to be tackled afresh every day". No formula or organization can free us from this responsibility.
There are small but real things we can do. Remember the horrors of war and pass on the value of peace to the next generation. Try to understand different cultures and religions. Choose dialogue and compromise over the language of hate.
Most importantly, we must never forget the biggest lesson WWII taught us: that silence and indifference lead to greater tragedies, and that peace isn't something that just happens - it's something we have to protect every single day.
A world without war might be impossible. But at the very least, we need to remember history's lessons and pass them on, so the next generation doesn't repeat our mistakes. That's the minimum responsibility we have - and must fulfill - as we live through 2025.