The Most Violent Year Since World War II

PRIO's Peace in a Pod

More armed conflicts took place in 2023 than in any other year since the end of World War II. That is the shocking finding in this year’s Conflict Trends Report – a yearly paper by the Peace Research Institute Oslo, using data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and examining global conflict trends since 1946.

In total, 59 armed conflicts raged around the world last year.

So is our world becoming more violent? What were the most violent conflicts in 2023? And are these figures a coincidence of overlapping conflicts, some extraordinarily lethal, from artillery warfare in Ukraine to the razing of Gaza?

Siri Aas Rustad is a Research Director at PRIO and the author of the Conflict Trends Report. In this episode, she is joined by Richard Gowan, the United Nations Director for the International Crisis Group, and an Associate Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

PRIO's Peace in a Pod is hosted by award-winning journalist Arnaud Siad.

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