War, Peace and Third World Development

Systemic violence up to and including war is a chronic development problem. A development agenda that fails to address violence is dealing with only part of the needs of Third World countries and will probably not enjoy much success. During 1993, there were 52 wars involving 42 war-torn countries. In a further 37 violent countries, political violence was widespread and even endemic without quite meriting the name of war. Of this total of 79 conflict countries, 65 are in the Third World. Almost all the 52 wars are civil wars. Wars that in 1993 were fought between two different states began as civil wars in Yugoslavia and the USSR before their disintegration. In recent years there have been few inter-state wars, though direct and indirect external intervention in internal strife continues.