In 1995, 30 major armed conflicts were waged in 25 locations around the world. The comparative figures were 32 and 28, respectively, in 1994, and 36 and 32 in 1989, the last year of the cold war.

As in 1994, all the major armed conflicts in 1995 were internal rather than between states. However, foreign forces were involved in some intra-state conflicts, in the sense that their regular troops were involved in the fighting - in Tajikistan (Russian/Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS] forces were used against the opposition), Liberia (the Economic Organization of West African States Monitoring Group peacekeeping forces were involved), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (troops from Croatia reinforced the Bosnian Army in battles with Bosnian Serb forces).

Only one conflict - that in Bosnia and Herzegovina - was ended during the year through a comprehensive peace treaty which included military and civilian provisions as well as ways of addressing the incompatibilities behind the conflict. A second conflict - that between the Croatian Government and the Croatian Serbs - ended with military victories and a peace agreement.

As in previous years, there were a number of cases of non-governmental actors fighting each other, often in addition to an ongoing conflict between a government and non-governmental parties - in Afghanistan, northern Iraq, India (Kashmir), Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan.

There is a visible trend in the relative prominence of the key issues in major armed conflicts: more conflicts are now fought over territory than over government control.

Appendix 1A, by Margareta Sollenberg et al., gives data on the major armed conflicts of 1995.

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