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Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell - Is War Over? — A Paradox Explained

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Author: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Categories: History
Tags: history
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 00:54 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: The video argues that war is declining and that the world is currently in its most peaceful period, despite ongoing conflicts. It attributes this to the end of colonialism and the Cold War, the rise of democracy and globalisation, and new international rules against aggression. It also cautions that it is too early to know whether this decline is lasting.

Key Points

  • Ongoing conflicts are mostly civil wars or local conflicts rather than wars between nations, and their impact is usually far smaller.
  • As of September 2014, four conflicts had killed at least 10,000 people since January 2013, nine had killed over 1,000, and thirteen had killed over 100.
  • Victory for one side in civil wars was common until 1989, but has become much rarer, while negotiated endings have risen from about 10% to nearly 40%.
  • Four major reasons for the decline of interstate war are democratisation, globalisation, a legal and norm shift against war after World War I, and fixed borders after World War II.
  • Most current conflicts are in areas that were under foreign control about 60 years ago, and colonial rule ended in nearly all of Africa, Asia, and Latin America by 1990.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: No step-by-step actions are given. The video's only actionable suggestion is that viewers can make things better by speaking up for peace and democracy.
  • Democracies hardly ever fight each other; of all state-against-state wars fought since 1900, only a minority were between democracies.
  • The Congo Free State, established in 1885 by the Belgian king, saw violence and economic exploitation kill about half the population by 1908, with about 10 million executed or starved; forced labor continued until Belgian rule ended in 1960.
  • The historical average is about one or two big wars per century, so the video says confidence that humanity is changing would require no major war in the next 75 years.
  • Rules now declare acts of aggression illegal, permitting armed force only in self-defence or with UN Security Council authority, and an international war crimes court sits in The Hague.

Bottom Line

The video suggests that war between nations has become rare and that current conflicts, though harmful, are generally becoming less severe, but whether this marks a lasting peace remains unproven.