The history of mankind and the history of military confrontations are inseparable. Unfortunately. Rejecting philosophical questions, many researchers have been trying for centuries to understand the root causes of why some people kill others. However, over the millennia, nothing new has appeared in this regard: greed and envy, the precarious position of one's own economy and the desire to harm a neighbor, religious and social intolerance. As you can see, the list is not that long.
But there are nuances. After the First and Second World Wars, humanity no longer gravitates towards such decisions. If a state needs to resolve a conflict with another power, the military tries not to start a serious confrontation, limiting itself to pinpoint strikes. In some cases, ethnic and religious differences 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 regulate them and how to prevent their manifestation in the future? No one has found answers to all these questions.until now, but some regularities still managed to be identified. Let's talk about that.
What is this?
In Latin there is a word regionalis, which means "regional". Accordingly, regional conflicts are a kind of international disagreements or military actions 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 peoples living in different states fight in the border areas, but both powers remain in normal relations and together try to resolve the conflict.
Simply put, these disagreements result in local armed confrontations. Southeast Asia and Africa have been the most "hot" regions for a decade now, and the rest of the world often does not even know about military operations on the "Black Continent". Or he will find out, but after more than a dozen years. However, this does not mean at all that modern regional conflicts in Africa are small in scale: they are extremely bloody and cruel, there are even cases of selling captives for meat (in the truest sense of the word).
World examples of regional conflicts
One of the results 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 politic althe conflicts that shake 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 in order to liberate it from the Japanese army. However, the already traditional disagreements between the USSR and the USA, although they made it possible to expel the Japanese, could not unite the Koreans themselves. Their paths finally parted in 1948, when the DPRK and the ROK were formed. More than half a century has passed since then, but the situation in the region remains extremely tense to this day.
Not so long ago, the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, even announced the possibility of a nuclear confrontation. Fortunately, both sides did not go for a further aggravation of relations. And this is good, because all the regional conflicts of the 20-21st century may well develop into something much more terrible than both World Wars.
Not all is well in the Sahara…
In the mid-1970s, Spain finally abandoned its encroachments on Western Sahara, after which this area was transferred to the control of Morocco and Mauritania. Now it is under the complete control of the Moroccans. But this did not save the latter from problems. Even in the era of the supremacy of the Spaniards, they clashed with the rebels, who proclaimed the creation of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as their final goal. 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 any more famousregional conflicts? The examples we have given are not known to everyone. Yes, as much as you like!
This confrontation is probably known, if not to everyone, then to the majority. In 1947, the same UN decided that on the territory of the former British fiefdom, Palestine, two new states were created: Israeli and Arab. In 1948 (yes, the year was rich in events) the creation of the country of Israel was proclaimed. As expected, the Arabs did not pay the slightest attention to the decision of the UN, and therefore immediately began 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 skirmishes on the borders of both states. Particularly interesting is the attitude of France towards regional conflicts in that region: on the one hand, the Hollande government supports the Israelis. But on the other hand, no one will forget about the supply of French weapons to "moderate" ISIS militants who are not opposed to wiping Israel off the face of the earth.
War in Yugoslavia
The most serious regional conflict on European territory is the events of 1980, which took place in the then united 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 statestood at completely different levels of socio-economic development (which always stimulates local and regional conflicts).
It is not surprising that all these contradictions eventually resulted in a fierce internal confrontation. The most bloody was the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Just imagine this explosive mixture: half of the Serbs and Croats professed Christianity, and the other half - Islam. There is nothing more terrible than a civil war caused by religious differences and the appearance of "jihad preachers" … The path to peace turned out to be long, but already in the mid-90s, fueled by NATO bombing, the war broke out with renewed vigor.
However, all the regional conflicts, examples of which we have given and will give, have never been distinguished by a small number of victims. The worst thing is that mostly civilians die, while military losses in these wars are not so great.
General explanations
There can be many root causes. But for all their diversity, it should be remembered that, unlike the full-scale wars of the past, regional conflicts have never arisen for some trifling reason. If such a confrontation unfolded on the territory of a certain state (or states), even if outwardly prosperous, this fact testifies to the most difficult 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 formerly mighty Soviet empireis in a very deplorable state. The local authorities, who, according to many domestic researchers, had already completely merged with ethnic criminal groups by that time, were not only not interested in resolving the conflict, but also directly opposed the purely “decorative” Soviet authorities in attempts to peacefully resolve. "Decorative" is a great definition for Moscow's power in that region at that time.
The USSR no longer had any real levers of influence (with the exception of the army), and there was no political will for the correct and large-scale use of troops for a long time. As a result, Nagorno-Karabakh not only actually moved away from the metropolis, but also largely contributed to the collapse of the country. Here are some of the causes of regional conflicts.
Features of regional conflicts on the territory of the former USSR
No matter how fresh the words of the hymn “fraternal peoples union…” may sound, they have never been 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 a 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 already in 1989 (remember Karabakh). When the USSR collapsed, the massacre began. We started with the Russians, and therefore the Uzbeks grappled with each otherTajiks. Many experts agree that the main instigator was Uzbekistan, whose representatives still prefer to talk about "external enemies" who "quarreled" the Uzbeks with other peoples. The claims of local "rulers" do not meet with much understanding either in Astana or Bishkek, not to mention Moscow.
On the causes of local wars on the territory of the former Soviet Union
Why are we all talking about this? The thing is that practically all (!) regional conflicts on the territory of the USSR did not arise “suddenly”. The central authorities were well aware of all the prerequisites for their occurrence, which, meanwhile, tried to hush everything up and translate it into the plane of “domestic conflicts.”
The main feature of local wars on 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 not noticing its manifestations), which actually removed itself from all responsibility and handed over almost all Central Asian republics to local criminal gangs. As we already know, all this has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have claimed these international and regional conflicts.
From this follows another feature of local clashes throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union - their exceptional bloodiness. No matter how terrible the hostilities in Yugoslavia were, they cannot be compared with the Fergana massacre. Not to mention the events in the Chechen and Ingush republics. How muchpeople of all nationalities and religions died there, is still unknown. And now let's remember the regional conflicts in Russia.
Conflicts of regional importance in modern Russia
From 1991 to the present, our country continues to reap the fruits of the suicidal policy of the USSR in the Central Asian region. The First Chechen War is considered the most terrible result, and its continuation was a little better. These local-regional conflicts in our country will be remembered for a long time.
Prerequisites for the Chechen conflict
As in all previous cases, the prerequisites for those events were laid long before they were realized. In 1957, all representatives of the indigenous population deported in 1947 were returned to the Chechen ASSR. The results were not long in coming: if in 1948 it was one of the most peaceful republics in those parts, then already 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 it, but the state of emergency was lifted 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 cases when people were killed right in the middle of the street. Happy! By the beginning of 1991, the situation had become so tense that the most far-sighted had to almost fight their way towards the Ingush border. At that time, local policemen 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 on the territory of "Independent Ichkeria". There were no problems with weapons, since by that time all the military units of the SA, located in the CHIASSR, were 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. Tensions escalated…
Consequences
Grozny airport became a world smuggling center, the slave trade flourished in the republic, Russian trains passing through the territory of Chechnya were constantly robbed. Only in the period from 1992 to 1994, 20 railway workers died, the slave trade flourished. As for peaceful Russian-speaking residents, only according to the OSCE, the number of missing people totaled more than 60 thousand (!) People. From 1991 to 1995, more than 160,000 people died or went missing on the territory of the ill-fated Chechnya. Of these, only 30,000 were Chechens.
The surrealism of the situation was that all this time money was regularly flowing from the federal budget to Chechnya to "pay salaries, pensions and social benefits." Dudayev and his associates regularly spent all these funds on weapons, drugs and slaves.
Finally, in December 1994, troops were brought into the rebellious republic. And then there was the infamous New Year's assault on Grozny, which turned into huge losses and shamefor our army. Only by February 22 did the troops take the city, from which by that time there was very little left.
It all ended with the signing of the shameful Khasavyurt peace in 1996. If someone will study the settlement of regional conflicts, then the signing of this agreement should be considered solely in the light of how not (!) to reconcile the parties.
As you might guess, nothing good came out of this "world": a state of Wahhabis was formed on the territory of Chechnya. Drugs flowed like a river from the republic, slaves of Slavic nationalities were imported into it. The militants took over almost all 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 let the militants attack Dagestan. The Second Chechen campaign has begun.
Second War
However, this time the militants did not go so smoothly. Firstly, the population of the republic was far from being enthusiastic about the "freedom", for which they also fought. The mercenaries from the Arab countries, Africa, the B altic states and Ukraine, who arrived in Chechnya, soon clearly proved that there would be no "Sharia". The one who had weapons and money was right. Of course, the Dagestanis - for the same reasons - met the militants who invaded their territory not with open arms (which the latter really counted on), but with bullets.
This war was different in that the side of the federal forces openlypassed the Kadyrov clan. Other Chechens followed them, and the militants no longer met that full support from the local population (theoretically). The second Chechen campaign turned out to be much more successful, but still dragged on for 10 years. The counter-terrorist operation regime was abolished only in 2009. However, many military experts were skeptical about this, noting that the sluggish partisan activity of the militants would continue for a long time.
As you can see, local-regional conflicts bring grief no less than a full-scale war. The tragedy of the situation is also in the fact that the war in this case does not help to resolve the contradictions that caused it. We will remember the regional conflicts in Russia for a long time, as they brought extremely much trouble and suffering to all the peoples who participated in them.
