The history of mankind and the history of military confrontations are inseparable. Unfortunately. Having rejected philosophical questions, many researchers have been trying for centuries to figure out the root causes of why some people kill others. However, over the millennia in this regard, nothing new has appeared: greed and envy, the precarious situation of one's own economy and the desire to harm a neighbor, religious and social intolerance. As you can see, the list is not so long.
But there are nuances. After the First and Second World Wars, mankind no longer gravitates toward such decisions. If a state needs to resolve a conflict with another power, the military tries not to engage in a serious confrontation, limiting itself to targeted strikes. In some cases, ethnic and religious contradictions lead to the same results.
If you haven’t guessed yet, let’s explain: today the topic of our discussion will be regional conflicts. What is it and why do they arise? Is it possible to resolve them and how to prevent their manifestation in the future? So far, people have not found answers to all these questions, but still managed to identify some patterns. We’ll talk about this.
What it is?
In Latin, there is the word regionalis, which means "regional". Accordingly, regional conflicts are a kind of international disagreement or military action due to religious tensions that arise in some local area and do not directly affect the interests of other countries. In some cases (ethnic conflicts) it happens that two small people living in different states fight in the border territories, but both powers remain in normal relations and together try to resolve the conflict.
Simply put, these disagreements spill over into local armed confrontations. For the past ten years now, Southeast Asia and Africa have remained the hottest regions, and the rest of the world often does not even guess about military operations on the Black Continent. Or he finds out, but after more than a dozen years. However, this does not mean at all that modern regional conflicts in Africa are small: they are extremely bloody and cruel, even cases of the sale of captives for meat (in the truest sense of the word) are not uncommon.
Worldwide examples of conflicts at the regional level
One of the outcomes of World War II was the division of Korea into two independent states. The arena of confrontation between them served as one of the stumbling blocks in the politics of the USSR and the West. Almost all regional political conflicts that are shaking the world today affect the interests of Russia and NATO to one degree or another.
It all started with the fact that in 1945 the combined Soviet-American troops entered the territory of the said country with the aim of liberating it from the Japanese army. However, the disagreements between the USSR and the USA that have already become traditional, although they allowed the Japanese to be expelled, were still unable to unite the Koreans themselves. Their paths finally diverged in 1948, when the DPRK and the Republic of Kazakhstan were formed. More than half a century has passed since then, but the situation in the region to this day remains extremely tense.
Not so long ago, the DPRK leader, Kim Jong-un, even announced the possibility of a nuclear confrontation. Fortunately, both sides did not go on to further aggravate relations. And it pleases, because all regional conflicts of the 20-21 century can well develop into something much worse than both World Wars.
Not everything is calm in the Sahara …
In the mid-1970s, Spain finally abandoned attacks on Western Sahara, after which this area was transferred under the control of Morocco and Mauritania. Now she is under the full control of the Moroccans. But this did not save the latter from problems. Back in the era of Spanish rule, they encountered rebels who proclaimed their ultimate goal the creation of the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Oddly enough, more than 70 countries have already recognized the “fighters for a brighter future”. From time to time at UN meetings, the question of the final “legalization” of this state is raised.
Are there more well-known regional conflicts? The examples that we have cited are far from everyone knows. Yes, any number!
Most likely, if not everyone, then the majority knows about this confrontation. In 1947, the same UN decided that two new states were created on the territory of the former British patrimony, Palestine, Israel and Arab. In 1948 (yes, the year was eventful), the creation of the country of Israel was proclaimed. As expected, the Arabs did not pay the slightest attention to the UN decision, and therefore immediately started a war against the "infidels." They overestimated their strength: Israel seized most of the territories that were originally intended for the Palestinians.
Since then, not a single year has passed without provocations and constant clashes on the borders of both states. Of particular interest is France's attitude to regional conflicts in that region: on the one hand, the Government of Holland supports the Israelis. But on the other, no one will forget about the supply of French weapons to the "moderate" ISIS militants, who are not against wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
War in Yugoslavia
The most serious regional conflict on European territory is the events of 1980 that occurred in the then unified Yugoslavia. In general, starting from the First World War, the fate of this country was extremely difficult. Despite the fact that many peoples in this territory had the same origin, there were disagreements between them on religious and ethnic grounds. In addition, the situation was aggravated by the fact that different parts of the state were at completely different levels of socio-economic development (which always stimulates local and regional conflicts).
Not surprisingly, all of these contradictions eventually turned into a fierce domestic confrontation. The bloodiest was the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Imagine only this explosive mixture: half of the Serbs and Croats professed Christianity, and the second half - Islam. There is nothing worse than the civil war caused by religious disagreements and the emergence of “jihad preachers” … The path to peace turned out to be a long one, but already in the mid-90s, fueled by NATO bombings, the war broke out with renewed vigor.
However, all regional conflicts, examples of which we have cited and will cite, have never been distinguished by a small number of victims. The worst thing is that mostly civilians die, while the losses of the military in these wars are not so great.
General explanation
There may be many root causes. But for all their diversity, it should be remembered that, unlike full-scale wars of the past, regional conflicts never arose over some trifling reasons. If such a confrontation unfolded on the territory of a certain state (or states), even if it was apparently outwardly prosperous, this fact indicates the most serious social problems that have remained unresolved for decades. So what are the main causes of regional conflicts?
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (1989) clearly showed that the previously powerful Soviet empire was in very poor condition. Local authorities, which, according to many domestic researchers, had already completely grown together with ethnic criminal groups, were not only not interested in resolving the conflict, but directly opposed the purely “decorative” Soviet authorities in trying to find a peaceful settlement. “Decorative” is an excellent definition for the Moscow authorities in that region at that time.
The USSR no longer had any real levers of influence (with the exception of the army), and there has long been no political will for the correct and large-scale use of troops. As a result, Nagorno-Karabakh not only actually departed from the metropolis, but also largely contributed to the collapse of the country. These are the causes of regional conflicts.
Features of regional conflicts in the territory of the former USSR
No matter how freshly the words of the hymn “brotherly peoples of the Union …” sounded, they were never particularly relevant. The party elite did not advertise this too much, but there were enough disagreements on the territory of the USSR that would inevitably cause war in the end. An ideal example is the Ferghana Valley. A terrible mixture of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs and Russians, seasoned with underground preachers of radical Islam … The authorities preferred to hide their heads in the sand, and the problems grew, expanding and growing, like a snowball.
The first pogroms took place as early as 1989 (recall Karabakh). When the USSR collapsed, the massacre began. They started with the Russians, and therefore, the Uzbeks clashed with the Tajiks. Many experts agree that the main instigator was Uzbekistan, whose representatives still prefer to broadcast “about external enemies” who “quarreled” the Uzbeks with other peoples. The claims of local "rulers" are not particularly understood either in Astana or in Bishkek, not to mention Moscow.
On the causes of local wars in the territory of the former Union
Why are we all saying this? The thing is that almost all (!) Regional conflicts on the territory of the USSR did not arise “suddenly”. All the prerequisites for their occurrence were well known to the central government, which, meanwhile, tried to hush up everything and transfer it to the plane of “everyday conflicts”.
The main feature of local wars in the territory of both our country and the entire CIS was precisely ethnic and religious intolerance, the development of which was allowed by the highest party elite (and then point blank at not noticing its manifestations), which virtually eliminated all responsibility and gave up to local criminals. almost all Central Asian republics. As we already know, all this cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who carried away these international and regional conflicts.
From this follows another feature of local clashes throughout the territory of the former Union - their exceptional bloody nature. No matter how terrible the hostilities in Yugoslavia may be, they cannot be compared with the Ferghana massacre. Not to mention the events in the Chechen and Ingush republics. How many people of all nationalities and religions died there is still unknown. Now let's recall the regional conflicts in Russia.
Conflicts of regional significance in modern Russia
From 1991 to the present, our country continues to reap the fruits of the suicidal policies of the USSR in the Central Asian region. The First Chechen is considered the most terrible result, and its continuation was slightly better. These local-regional conflicts in our country will be remembered for a long time.
Background of the Chechen conflict
As in all previous cases, the prerequisites of those events were laid long before their implementation. In 1957, all indigenous representatives deported in 1947 were returned to the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The results were not long in coming: if in 1948 it was one of the most peaceful republics in those parts, then in 1958 there was a riot. Its initiators, however, were not Chechens. On the contrary, people protested against the atrocities committed by the Vainakhs and Ingush.
Few people know about this, but the emergency mode was canceled only in 1976. However, this was only the beginning. Already in 1986, it was dangerous for Russians to appear on the streets of Grozny alone. There were times when people were killed right in the middle of the street. In the afternoon! By the beginning of 1991, the situation was so tense that the most far-sighted had to almost break through with battles towards the Ingush border. At that time, local police officers showed their best side, helping robbed people to get out of the territory, which suddenly became hostile.
In September 1991, the republic declared its independence. Already in October, the notorious Dzhokhar Dudayev was elected president. By 1992, thousands of “fighters for the faith” were concentrated in the territory of Independent Ichkeria. There were no problems with armament, since by that time all military units of the SA located in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic had been looted. Of course, the leadership of the "young and independent" state has safely forgotten about such trifles as the payment of pensions, salaries and benefits. The tension was growing …
Effects
Grozny airport became the world center of smuggling, the slave trade flourished in the republic, and Russian trains that traveled through the territory of Chechnya were constantly looted. Only in the period from 1992 to 1994, 20 railroad workers died, the slave trade flourished. As for the peaceful Russian-speaking residents, only according to the OSCE, the number of missing persons totaled more than 60 thousand (!) People. From 1991 to 1995, more than 160 thousand people died and went missing on the territory of the ill-fated Chechnya. Of these, only 30 thousand were Chechens.
The surrealism of the situation was that all this time money from the federal budget to Chechnya regularly went to "pay salaries, pensions and social benefits." Dudaev and associates regularly spent all these funds on weapons, drugs and slaves.
Finally, in December 1994, troops were brought into the rebel republic. And then there was the infamous New Year's assault on Grozny, resulting in huge losses and shame for our army. Only by February 22 the troops nevertheless took the city, from which by that time very little remained.
It all ended with the fact that in 1996 the infamous Khasavyurt world was signed. If someone will study the settlement of regional conflicts, the signing of this agreement should be considered solely in the light of how it is not necessary (!) To reconcile the parties.
As you might guess, nothing good came of this "world": a state of Wahhabis was formed on the territory of Chechnya. Drugs flowed from the republic, slaves of Slavic nationalities were imported into it. The militants took over almost all the trade in the region. But in 1999, the actions of the Chechens finally exceeded all permissible limits. The government was surprisingly indifferent to the deaths of its citizens, but did not launch a militant attack on Dagestan. The Second Chechen campaign has begun.
