Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Posted for later reading

StrategyPage's summary of wars around the world: don't look now, but it's peaceful out there.
i.e. the "Great Nuclear Truce" that has gone on since 1950 has meant no major wars.

They then go on to mention all the smaller civil disturbances and minor wars that kill folks.

A lot of this stuff is background (e.g. corruption problems, the radical strain in Islam that need reforming, lots of media manipulation of the war on terror that ignores reality) that is rarely discussed on the news.

And the bloodiest war in the world has little to do with Islam: it is in Central Africa, especially the Congo

Multiple tribal and political militias, plus an increasing number of bandits, continue to roam the eastern border area, perpetuating the bloodiest (and least reported) war of the last decade (several million dead, depending on who is counting). Peacekeeper and army action have reduced the size of these violent groups, but not eliminated them.
fueled by mining wealth...

and the Philippines is there as a potential hot spot...

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Update: BBC has a good article on how Pakistan might be turning to the dark side.

Taseer's killing is a watershed from which the government has not seemed able to recover and from which the extremists drew strength, increasing their defiance against a state that was deemed weak and vulnerable.

In the new year, the fear of more political assassinations lingers as do deepening divisions between the army and the government which would make the country ungovernable.

It is clear that the 50-year-old source of Pakistan's continuing instability - civil-military relations - is going to determine the course of 2012.


related item: Strategytalk podcast

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