State-based conflicts — those where at least one party is the government of a state — reached their highest level at 65 in 2025 since the end of World War II, according to data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Notably, all 10 years with the most state-based conflicts since 1946 fall within 2015–2025, a stretch in which the annual count never dropped below 50. With two exceptions — 2018 and 2021 — every year in this period either matched or exceeded the number of conflicts recorded the year before.

Outside the 2015–2025 period, only three years in the rest of the dataset recorded 50 or more conflicts — 1991 (53), 1992 (51), and 1994 (50) — all clustered tightly together in the early-to-mid 1990s, coinciding with and in the immediate wake of the end of the Cold War.

Analysis of data using the end of that geopolitical and ideological rivalry between the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union as the starting point shows that conflict peaked in the 1990s (an average of 44.8) compared with any previous decade in the dataset, before declining in the 2000s (35.4) and rising again in the 2010s to a new decadal high of 45.7. Even with only six years counted, the 2020s’ average is 58.3 — already well above every completed decade, including the previous record-holder, the 2010s. The 1950s recorded the lowest average (15.8) among complete decades.

Data from the same source for 1989–2025 show that non-state conflict — communal and organised armed conflict where none of the parties is the government of a state — peaked in 2017, at 93. By 2025, the figure had eased to 75, though this still ranked 10th highest of the 37 years in the dataset.

For the same period, 2022 recorded the highest number of battle-related deaths, at 284,981.

The 2025 figure of 153,643 was down 46 per cent from that peak, though the year still ranked 4th highest of the 37 years counted.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict accounted for the highest share of battle-related deaths in both 2024 (65.87 per cent) and 2025 (61.66 per cent), with the Israel-Palestine conflict — which includes the Syria, Yemen and Lebanon fronts — a distant second in both years, at 16.74 per cent and 9.74 per cent, respectively.

Against this backdrop, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres, in May, reportedly told the Security Council (UNSC) that the UN Charter was facing one of its gravest tests in decades, warning of deepening geopolitical divisions and intensifying conflicts across multiple regions.

Guterres, in particular, warned that “a dangerous erosion of respect for international law” was taking place, and that fundamental principles such as sovereignty, territorial integrity and the prohibition on the use of force were being “challenged or ignored”.

“Global military spending is at record levels, even as deadly weapons get cheaper to produce and resources for development and humanitarian needs get slashed,” Guterres said.

The year 2026 is more than halfway through, having been marked by a sharp escalation in the conflict in West Asia and the continuing grind of war in Ukraine, lending urgency to Guterres’ reported conclusion, which came by way of a direct appeal in his May address to UNSC members: Move beyond rhetoric and act collectively to preserve international peace and security.