Wars and Fighting

 21st century, three decades in now; we have ever been thus, for all known history. We fight with weapons, or without. We as advanced primates fight for whatever reasons:

Hate

Hunger

Power

Fear

Jealousy

Covetousness 

Money

Control

Paranoia

Feelings of Superiority

Taxes

Perceived Rights

Ethnic rivalries

Ideological differences

Scarcity

In Defense of the weak, defenseless

Boredom

Cruelty

Evil

Selfishness

Trade Imbalances

Misunderstandings

Border disputes

Offenses and murder

Kidnapping  

Land grabbing

Ethnic "cleansing"

Bullying

Terrorizing 

Ally backing

Poverty

Stealing

Greed

 

There are some false reasons for war and fighting:

 

Religion

Defense 

Okay, that is not really true.

    Defense and religions do cause their share of wars and violence, which are suppose to be altruistic pursuits in preserving and protecting the masses, in helping and protecting the regular people. The other nefarious principles shared above insert themselves in otherwise altruistic and good institutions.

     People in power, autocrats, power crazed despots, cool headed technocrats, even regular otherwise peaceful leaders who wish for the public peace and good, and many regular local and world leaders get wrapped up in wars and violence. Some wolves and hawks sense opportunities and weaknesses among lambs and doves initiate plans and attacks, some of which resonate for years. Sometimes spontaneous uprisings swell into bigger popular actions and violent waves that continue. This is somewhat true to the Arab Spring, with Syria, Yemen, and Libya continuing as bifurcated and divided republics and kingdoms, states and failed states.

I will do a sweep of the continents and islands, according to wars and violence, starting with the WHEM, as of 2021.

 

 Western Hemisphere, North, Central, South America

Most of the Western hemisphere is absent of war, but there are a few countries where violence and some mayhem are widespread due to gangs and internecine lack of government control.

Mexico has the most amount of violence in the current years, where some of the regional drug cartels are waging their own bloody and awful wars. Some of these competitive struggles are worse than other world conflicts as far as body counts, arms, offensive and defensive maneuvers, commanders, hyperbole, terror, sheer ammo and artillery blasts. There are major and powerful cartels that are waging wars among themselves and the government. Dozens of government officials are killed routinely, and many law enforcement and military trying to quell the drug traffic and production, and the gangs themselves terrorize and torture each other's people in an ongoing feud of blood and bodies.

   Second worst in the WHEM might be El Salvador, where the violence among the gangs and thieves is bad. Honduras is no walk in the park either, and Guatemala probably has its share of local intrigue and violence. Not sure about Nicaragua. Economics are not great there.

    Across the Caribbean, there is unrest as far as those wanting to leave Cuba, but no war. Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico have crime problems and violence, but no violence to be qualified as war. The smaller islands, even a not so small place as Trinidad, have some terrorist threats but no major conflicts.

   South America has had political and economic unrest in Venezuela, which spills over into Colombia, and a few other border nations, where there are some armed groups and threats that have largely defused over time (the cartels of Cali and Medellin and the former militias have come down from their hay day), but by and large the whole continent of the South is doing okay with war and violence. Brazil has major gangs, Argentina has criminal violence, but the whole continent is doing better than most. Some threat groups exist in Peru, as they traditionally do, Bolivia has its pockets of potential insurgency, but South America looks to Venezuela as its problem of the era.

Europe

     With well over a billion citizens, Europe is mostly economically stable and violence is at a minimum. This past year on the fringe of the border with Asia, Azerbaijan and Armenia had a pretty big dust up in Nagorno-Karabakh, where bigger powers Russia and Turkey got involved. The ethnic Armenians in the enclave, or exclave, mostly lost out. A bit like the ethnic tensions of North and South Ossetia of Georgia back in 2008, but Russia drove that more. South Ossetians and Georgians lost then. Russia keeps gaining ground and territory.

    Speaking of Russia, the Crimea in the Ukraine became bad as recently as 2014-15, and the tensions of that mini-war/armed conflict still reverberate, but things are more or less at a status quo. Ukraine has basically lost major ground to Russia.

   The rest of Europe is not bad, with some political unrest and spark in Catalunya of Spain, but not too bad. NATO Baltic countries feel threatened by Mother Russia, as always, or the Kurds of the eastern and southern mountains are in their perpetual state of strife, but only the periphery of Europe has signs of armed conflict.

Africa

 This continent has its share of armed conflicts and violent groups, probably the most in the world, but Asia has its share, too. We already mentioned Libya; that large Mediterranean land has been broken up since Khadafy was deposed in 2011. While two factions fight over the country proper, the far south is considered "under-governed."

   Where is the worst violence and armed conflicts of the African continent?

    

    Somalia. Three separate areas for generations, Al-Shabaab ISIS affiliate has been terrorizing for a long time. 

 

    Ethiopia. Bad fighting and ethnic violence in the northern Tigray region.

 

    Nigeria. Muslim terrorists, mostly in the north.

    Mali. More Muslim terrorists.

   Burkina Faso. Some remnants of the Mali kind, which lingers into Niger.

   Cameroon. Some upstarts in this country cause some violent problems.

   Western Sahara. Separatist movement has been at odds with Morocco for generations.

   Tunisia. Some terrorists hang out in the mountains.

 

   Tanzania. Some armed terrorists have sway in the north, going into northern Mozambique.

 

   Democratic Republic of Congo. Thugs and armed groups have hustled here for a long time, killing many.

 

   Kenya. Al-Shabaab remnants who are Somalis have some presence in Kenya.

 

   South Sudan. Bad civil conflict between ethnic groups.

   There is civil conflict and unrest that rears up in another dozen African nations, but not too much to be mentioned for now. Although ...

    Egypt has had a militant Muslim group in the Sinai Peninsula for a long time.

Asia

We mentioned the issues in Turkey and Azerbaijan; those are part European, but meander into Asia. It is one super-continent, anyway.

   Hot sports of violence and conflict still rage in the aforementioned:

   Syria.

   Yemen.

    Iraq.

   Afghanistan.

   Civil unrest in Myanmar, aka Burma.

   Insurgency in the Philippines. 

   Armed unrest in Nepal.

   North Korea is its own armed junkyard dog.

   Iran draws the wrath of Israel and others.

   Palestine is an occupied threat to millions, which circles back closer to Syria, and Iraq.

   Pacific and Australia

   When crossing down to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, into the South Pacific, there is not much armed conflict. Things go sideways sometimes in the East Indies, with Christians and Muslims and ethnic Chinese getting hard feelings in Indonesia. Papu New Guinea also gets riled up over strange phenomena; the South Pacific is largely that, peaceful, except for some occasional strife in Fiji. Australia and New Zealand are paradigms of tranquility, extensions of the British Commonwealth.

   Thus, the world is summed up as thus in 2021.

   Our major threats are the COVID-19 and hunger, by and large.

Oh, yes. China and Indian came to some blows last year, but that border flare up seems resolved. Pakistan has issues with some insurgents and independents, as perhaps a few of the Central Asian 'stans, like Kryrgiz and Uzbek. 

    Thus our world turns on war and violence at present.