By Jean-Pierre A.
The number of armed conflicts fought directly between states doubled in 2025, reaching the highest level recorded in over 80 years, according to PRIO’s annual report mapping global conflict trends.
The report, Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946–2025, documented eight interstate conflicts in 2025 – twice as many as the previous year and the highest number recorded since 1946.
“The return of interstate conflict at this scale is deeply worrying,” warned Siri Aas Rustad, Research Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and lead author of the report. “For decades, civil wars dominated global conflict. Now we are witnessing a dangerous resurgence of direct confrontations between states, driven by geopolitical rivalry, border disputes and regional escalation, particularly in the Middle East.”
The report documents a dramatic rise in one-sided violence against civilians. Over 76,000 people were killed in one-sided violence in 2025 – the highest number recorded since the Genocide against Tutsis in 1994. Most of the killings occurred in Sudan, particularly during the massacre of El-Fasher City in North Darfur in October 2025, when tens of thousands of civilians were killed, the report notes.
The conflicts include Russia’s war against Ukraine, renewed violence between India and Pakistan, escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, and multiple interstate confrontations linked to the expanding regional conflict involving Israel, Iran, Yemen and the United States.
The report is based on data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, and provides a global overview of state-based conflicts, non-state conflicts and one-sided violence.
2025 among the deadliest years since the Cold War
Beyond the rise in interstate conflict, the report finds that a staggering 245,000 people were killed in battle-related violence in 2025, making it the third deadliest year since 1989. The number of battle deaths increased from 188,000 in 2024. The sharp increase was driven primarily by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza and escalating violence in Sudan, including the siege and massacre of El-Fasher City.
In total, 65 state-based conflicts were recorded across 35 countries in 2025 – also the highest number since records began in 1946.
According to the report, the world has now experienced more than a decade of persistently high levels of violence. Every year since 2013 has been more violent than nearly every post-Cold War year that came before it.
Conflicts becoming more concentrated and growing complexity
The report also highlights a growing concentration of violence in a smaller number of countries. While 65 conflicts were recorded globally, they were concentrated in just 35 countries, with many experiencing several overlapping wars and insurgencies simultaneously.
Myanmar and Israel each experienced five separate conflicts in 2025, while Afghanistan, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria and Pakistan all experienced multiple conflicts.
This increasing complexity creates major challenges for peacebuilding, diplomacy and aid operations. “Conflicts today are increasingly interconnected,” said Rustad. “They involve more actors, overlapping fronts and greater regional spillover. That makes them far harder to resolve and significantly increases the risks of wider regional wars.”
The growing complexity of conflict is creating mounting challenges for diplomacy, peacebuilding and humanitarian operations.
Africa and the Middle East remain epicentres of conflict
Africa remained the region with the highest number of both state-based and non-state conflicts in 2025, while the Middle East recorded its highest number of state-based conflicts ever. Asia also reached its highest level of state-based conflict since the mid-1990s.
According to the report, these trends suggest that the rise in global violence is not confined to one region, but reflects a broader deterioration in international security.
“The data points to a world moving in the wrong direction: more wars, more internationalized conflicts and far higher human costs,” said Rustad.
