Health: A political choice Conflict, climate change and pandemics are overlapping threats with shared roots and cascading consequences. As war fractures peace, health, security and environmental systems, global cooperation is essential
How have the threats to human security increased from the rising deadly conflicts in the world since 1989? In 1990 there were about 50 armed conflicts in the world. By 2010 there were 30, and in 2025 there are over 60. So for two decades the global zone of peace expanded: fewer wars lasting less long, and the number of people killed was declining. In the second decade of this century, the
numbers of people killed in armed conflicts and refugees from armed conflicts doubled. However, data on people killed in war is notoriously unreliable. It is exaggerated on one side, played down on another side, there’s pure fiction on the third side, and ‘who gives a damn’ on the fourth side. So we’re really dealing with factoids and estimates. There are also the wounded and the injured. More people are injured in armed
Interview with Dan Smith, former executive director, SIPRI
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Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
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