Focus: Women, Gender and Armed Conflict

The end of the Cold War in 1989 did not, as had been expected, bring about a reduction in armed conflicts. More than two thirds of the poorest countries in the world are in conflict regions. The nature of armed conflict has changed. In the past, wars used to be waged almost solely between two sovereign states, but so-called modern wars are fought in quite different ways. The international community faces a completely new situation, an immensely complex nexus of diverse causes and warring parties. Today, warfare is increasingly taking on intranational forms (domestic or cross-border armed conflicts among disintegrating states, civil wars or rebellions), now exceeding international conflicts in terms of absolute numbers but also of intensity.