(Press-News.org) At 33, conflicts in the world last year increased by one compared to 2012. This is reported by peace researchers at Uppsala University's Conflict Data Program. The number has remained stable over the past decade. 2012 saw an increase in the number of battle-related deaths with the number of casualties in Syria completely overshadowing any other ongoing conflict. In 2012, two out of five people dying in battles, died in Syria.
The new dataset is described by peace researchers at Uppsala University's Conflict Data Program (UCDP) in an article which will soon be published in the Journal of Peace Research. In 2013, there were 33 active conflicts in the world, causing at least 25 battle-related deaths. The number of active conflicts in the world has remained relatively stable over the past ten years, fluctuating between 31 and 37. Compared to the period right after the end of the Cold War, where more than 50 conflicts were active, armed conflicts have declined by almost 40 percent. Conflicts claiming more than 1,000 lives, defined as wars, have declined by more than 50 percent, from 15 in the early 1990s to seven in 2013.
The total number of people killed in armed conflicts varies dramatically from one year to the next, and is dominated by some very intense wars. Syria is an obvious example.
- It is mostly the war in Syria that drives the high number of deaths in 2012, says UCDP project leader Lotta Themnér. Not since the end of the interstate war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1999-2001 have we seen a conflict this bloody.
From 2005 and onwards, there was a slow but steady increase in battle-deaths, and the worst conflicts are driving this trend. In 2012, the estimated 14 700 casualties in Syria accounted for 40 percent of the total number just short of 38 000. In 2013, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program has, for the very first time, refrained from publishing any numbers on the number of casualties, due to the shortage of reliable information.
A piece of optimistic news is that there were six peace agreements signed in 2013, which was two more than the previous year.
- The international community has not been able to reduce the prevalence of armed conflict further says Peter Wallensteen, Program Director of UCDP. This partly relates to the disagreements between the West and Russia on some key conflicts. However, the pattern also suggest that there is cooperation in some conflicts, contributing to peace agreements
INFORMATION:
Please visit UCDP's online encyclopedia at http://www.ucdp.uu.se/database to read about conflicts globally.
For more information, contact:
Professor Peter Wallensteen, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, mobile phone: +46-70-6752679, e-mail: peter.wallensteen@pcr.uu.se
Research Professor Henrik Urdal, Editor of the Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), mobile phone: +47 92 04 78 41, e-mail: henriku@prio.no
High number of fatalities despite unchanged level of armed conflicts
2014-06-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Anxious children have bigger 'fear centers' in the brain
2014-06-16
Philadelphia, PA, June 16, 2014 – The amygdala is a key "fear center" in the brain. Alterations in the development of the amygdala during childhood may have an important influence on the development of anxiety problems, reports a new study in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine recruited 76 children, 7 to 9 years of age, a period when anxiety-related traits and symptoms can first be reliably identified. The children's parents completed assessments designed to measure the anxiety levels of the children, ...
Stress early in life can increase the risk of overweight in adulthood
2014-06-16
There are indications that unborn children who are exposed to severe stress levels, have an increased risk of becoming overweight or developing obesity as adults.
This is shown by a new registry study from Aarhus University published in PloS ONE.
The researchers have previously shown that severe stress experienced by pregnant women can lead to weight problems for children between 10 and 13 years; however, a correlation between the mother's level of stress during pregnancy and the risk of developing overweight or obesity as an adult is new:
"Overall our results indicate ...
Wind turbine payback
2014-06-16
US researchers have carried out an environmental lifecycle assessment of 2-megawatt wind turbines mooted for a large wind farm in the US Pacific Northwest. Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, they conclude that in terms of cumulative energy payback, or the time to produce the amount of energy required of production and installation, a wind turbine with a working life of 20 years will offer a net benefit within five to eight months of being brought online.
Wind turbines are frequently touted as the answer to sustainable electricity production ...
Coalition's deficit reduction has made UK tax base more regressive
2014-06-16
Taxation in the UK has become increasingly regressive since the financial crisis, particularly since the coalition government came to office, according to academics at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI).
The latest evidence on tax revenue shows that progressive taxes such as income tax and capital gains tax contribute 54 per cent of total tax receipts, down from 58 per cent five years earlier. In contrast, regressive taxes such as VAT contribute 28 per cent of total tax receipts, an increase from 25 per cent.Tax
Research found that of all the ...
Effective drugs for Parkinson's reduce symptoms of Rett syndrome in mice
2014-06-16
IDIBELL researchers, led by the director of the Program for Epigenetics and Cancer Biology, ICREA researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, Manel Esteller, have shown that a combination of effective drugs for Parkinson's disease in mice that are used as a model of human Rett syndrome reduces some of the symptoms associated with this disease. The results of the study are published in the journal Neurophsycopharmacology
Second leading cause of mental retardation in females
Rett syndrome is the second most common cause of mental retardation in ...
Could politics trump economics as reason for growing income inequality?
2014-06-16
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Most research examining growing income inequality in the United States has focused on economic causes, for seemingly obvious reasons.
But a new study suggests that a different cause – the politically induced decline in the strength of worker unions – may play a much more pivotal role than previously understood.
In fact, the role that union decline has played in growing income inequality may actually be larger than many of the favorite explanations offered by economists, such as the education gap in the United States.
Among their contributions to income ...
Will diabetes patients benefit from the Affordable Care Act?
2014-06-16
New Rochelle, NY, June 14, 2014—The Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare) is dramatically changing health care delivery in the U.S. Specific parts of the new law, which will be phased in through 2020, will have a significant impact on patients with diabetes and prediabetes, as explored in a comprehensive Review article published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the DTT website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/dia.2014.0171.
In "Diabetes ...
Stem cells in neurodegeneration: challenges and future neurotherapeutic prospects
2014-06-16
Researchers at the University of Florida, USA, led by Dr. K. Wang have demonstrated that inhibition of Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) and subsequent cofilin dephosphorylation is mediating neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells. The lack of axonal regeneration in adult central nervous system (CNS) is one of the main cause of neurodegenerative disorders. Thus ROCK inhibition mediated neurite outgrowth is clinically relevant to treat CNS diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke (Zhang et al., 2006).
In a follow up study by Prof. W.S. ...
Nanoscale composites improve MRI
2014-06-16
HOUSTON – (June 16, 2014) – Submicroscopic particles that contain even smaller particles of iron oxide could make magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) a far more powerful tool to detect and fight disease.
Scientists at Rice University and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI) led an international team of researchers in creating composite particles that can be injected into patients and guided by magnetic fields. Once in position, the particles may be heated to kill malignant tissues or trigger the release of drugs at the site.
The "nanoconstructs" should fully ...
Scientists use LiDAR, 3-D modeling software to intricately map active Chinese fault zone
2014-06-16
Chinese and American scientists collaborating in the study of an active seismic fault that produced one of China's most deadly earthquakes say their deployment of an airborne LiDAR system, which uses pulses of laser light to calculate distances and chart terrain features, has helped them produce the most precise topographical measurements ever of the fault zone.
"Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) presents a new approach to build detailed topographic maps effectively," they report. They add that these high-precision three-dimensional models can be used to illustrate ...