Understanding and Mapping Contemporary Conflict

Contemporary armed conflict is often classified by researchers such as the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) into two broad categories: interstate wars, fought between the armed forces of two or more sovereign states, and intrastate (or civil) wars, fought primarily within the borders of a single state between government forces and one or more organized non-state armed groups, sometimes with the involvement of foreign backers. Since the end of the Cold War, intrastate conflicts have vastly outnumbered interstate ones, though a minority of contemporary wars — such as the Russia-Ukraine war — retain a clearly interstate character while also containing elements of instability that resemble civil conflict, such as contested territory with separatist administrations. Many present-day wars are also "internationalized intrastate conflicts", domestic wars in which one or more foreign states intervene militarily on behalf of a party, a pattern visible in Syria, Yemen, and Libya. Scholars and organizations such as the International Crisis Group and the Council on Foreign Relations' Global Conflict Tracker use these distinctions, alongside measures like battle-related deaths, to monitor and compare the intensity of ongoing conflicts worldwide.