Current Wars Update

[besilarius]

Since the end of the Cold War in 1991 deaths from wars and large scale civil disorder (which is often recorded as some kind of war) has led to a sharp (over 20 percent so far) drop in violence worldwide. This occurred despite increasingly active and lethal Islamic terror groups. While the terror attacks themselves were news, the current and historical causes of the Islamic terrorism were not. Examining that would have revealed that Islamic radicalism has a large anti-technology component, which is why Islamic terrorist violence tends to be low tech and disorganized. Thus most war deaths are not caused by terrorists and even in 2014 (a peak year for Islamic death cults seeking to revive the Caliphate) terrorism related deaths (mostly Islamic terrorism) accounted for 20 percent of all war related deaths. Islamic terrorism gets the most publicity but less glamorous disputes do most of the killing.

https://www.strategypage.com/qnd/wars/articles/20200102.aspx

[Jarhead0331]

20% of all "war" related deaths. First, I would like to know how "war" is defined. Islamic ideology is likely responsible for quite a number of deaths, but which may fall outside of the rubric of what is defined as war, or even generally as armed conflict. Additionally, I would also like to see the percentages of war related deaths from causes other than Islamic terror groups, or wars fought where Islamic ideology forms as a cause of the conflict. 20% may be a significant proportion when compared to the total percentages of each other cause.

[airboy]

Many of the deaths catalogued by the story are in failed states that seemingly always have low level wars going on.  They don't get as much attention since the collapse of the USSR, but the killings keep occurring.

The article is ambiguous about killings in places like Syria.  How do you classify the deaths there between the Syrian government; Iranian backed irregulars; Kurds; Turks; air strikes from Israel, Turkey and others; and general death and mayhem from a multilateral war zone?

On the bright side: Worldwide extreme poverty dropped dramatically; clean water availability increased; life expectancies increased dramatically (especially in the worst places on the planet) in the 2010s.

There is a "negative bias" in the news and also in human perceptions.  It is hard to remember the good news (especially when people make money grinding axes such as eco groups that are unable to acknowledge all of the progress made as one example).

[besilarius]

You're right, Jarhead.
Think it was Mark Twain: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
You can massage numbers to fit what you wish.