It occurs to me that this last 1/2 century or so has been globally pretty peaceful. And I wondered if it might even be one of the MOST peaceful 50 years we've had.
I'm inclined to imagine that the Cold War might have kept a lid on larger military aspirations. What do you think, am I deluded?
the cold war turned every civil war into a proxy war with at least one large power (the US) prolonging conflicts and fuelling large death tolls by supplying weapons to the right-wing, if not directly intervening
vietnam/cambodia/laos, both afghanistan wars, angola/namibia, liberia, sierra leone, syria, ukraine, both congo wars, occupation of lebanon, libya, yemen, and the years of lead are some examples of this
less nations legally declare war on each other now because declaring war requires UN backing, but the cold war was a violent extension of imperialism that never ended and a lot of people have been killed