State Conflicts Reach Highest Level Since World War II, New Data Shows

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University recorded 65 armed conflicts involving at least one state in 2025, the highest total since the program began collecting data in 1946, according to a study published in the Journal of Peace Research. The number of direct interstate conflicts doubled for the second consecutive year — from two in 2023 to eight in 2025 — including wars between Russia and Ukraine, Iran and Israel, India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the U.S.-U.K. campaign against Houthi forces in Yemen. Approximately 244,600 people were killed in organized violence during the year, up from 187,000 in 2024, making 2025 the deadliest year since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Russia-Ukraine war remained the single deadliest conflict, accounting for roughly 62% of all battle-related deaths, with at least 94,700 fatalities recorded. One-sided violence against civilians surged dramatically, with around 76,500 civilian deaths — an increase of more than 400% from the prior year — largely attributed to massacres by the Rapid Support Forces following the fall of El Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region. A world map and trend chart accompanying the research visually confirms upward trajectories across all three categories of organized violence — state-based, non-state, and one-sided — since the mid-2010s. Researchers noted that while the data is consistent with arguments about the erosion of the U.S.-led liberal world order, no direct causal link between specific policy decisions and the rise in conflicts could be established.