The
World Regional Conflicts Project The how's and why's of the world's worst regional conflicts |
|||
| One of the most agonizing regional conflicts of our day, it is the story of two peoples fighting over one piece of land in the name of religion. In a brief historical analysis, I look at the roots of this conflict and try to understand how it got to this point. | |||
| The roots of this conflict lie again in religion, as well as the method in which the departing British redrew the map of the subcontinent in 1947. Two nuclear-armed neighbors who have already gone to war three times, this conflict always seems to make its way back into news. | |||
| The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990's was due in large part to the resurgence of nationalism, an entity that had lain dormant under Communist rule since the end of World War II. The savagery of the war that followed and the reasons why tell a tale about the area's future. | |||
| Conflict in the Caucasus mountains of southern Russia is not a new feature of the region's history - the Russians and Chechens have been at it for hundreds of years. I relate why this region causes Moscow so many problems and how its responses only serve to set the stage for the next round. | |||
| The Russian experience in Afghanistan in the 1980's provides a valuable study on the risks run by superpowers in fighting a sustained conflict in southern Asia. In a post 9/11 world with threats coming from the lawless states instead of the established ones, this offers lessons on how not to run a war against a fundamentalist Islamic regime. | |||
| Set in the strategic Horn of Africa, Eritrea's war to break free from Ethiopian lasted 32 years, setting a dubious record for African separatist conflicts. This is the story of how a small, impoverished country countered Ethiopia, a Soviet-supported state with a huge army and ten times the population. | |||
Picture Inset: Afghan Mujahideen during the Afghan-Soviet War, Associated Press.