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The world witnessed the highest number of state-level conflicts since World War II in 2025, according to a report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). The annual "Conflict Trends" report documented 65 conflicts involving at least one state, marking a new peak since 1946. The number of conflicts between states also reached an 80-year high, doubling from the previous year to eight.

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Usually I'm able to sort of squeeze something positive out of it, but this year it's shocking, the numbers.

These inter-state clashes included border disputes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Cambodia and Thailand, alongside Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Israeli military actions against Syria. Researcher Siri Aas Rustad described the situation as "shocking," noting a significant increase in fatalities directly related to fighting or political violence.

Last year was the third deadliest since the end of the Cold War, with approximately 245,000 conflict-related deaths. Alarmingly, nearly 76,500 of these deaths were attributed to attacks specifically targeting civilians, a stark increase from 14,200 in 2024. The report attributes this sharp rise primarily to the conflict between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan, particularly the siege and massacres in El-Fasher city, which are estimated to have caused around 60,000 fatalities.

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What has happened in the past five or six years is that we have several big conflicts going on at the same time and they seem to take over from each other. The world doesn't get any break.

Africa remained the most affected continent by state-level conflicts, recording 29 such instances, followed by Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe. Rustad singled out Israel as "clearly one of the most aggressive countries in the world at the moment," citing its military operations. The report, based on data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, distinguishes between state conflicts, non-state conflicts, and one-sided violence against civilians, highlighting a continuous high intensity of conflict globally over the past five to six years.

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Israel was 'clearly one of the most aggressive countries in the world at the moment'.