Background & analysis

Conflict Background Briefings

How five major armed conflicts started, who is involved, and where analysts expect them to go next. For live status, see each conflict's tracker page on the world conflict map.

What is a background briefing?

The world conflict map and its per-conflict tracker pages (Russia–Ukraine, Israel–Gaza and the rest) answer "what is happening right now" — current front lines, this week's developments, casualty updates. A background briefing answers a different question: how did this conflict start, who are the actors, and where is it plausibly headed. Each briefing below covers one of five major conflicts in depth — origins, key actors, current situation and outlook — and links out to that conflict's live tracker for anyone who wants today's status instead.

How to use these briefings

Read a briefing first if you are new to a conflict and want context before the daily headlines make sense. Use the tracker page instead if you already know the background and want to know what changed today. The two page types are written for different intents on purpose, so they do not simply repeat each other.

The five briefings

War in Ukraine: The Grinding AttritionEurope & Eurasia — The roots, key actors and likely trajectory of Russia's war in Ukraine — a background briefing on how it started and where it may be headed.The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Gaza, the West Bank, and the Regional ArcMiddle East & North Africa — The origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, how October 7 and the Gaza war reshaped it, and the questions still unresolved.Sudan's Civil War: Competing Forces, Collapsed StateSub-Saharan Africa — How Sudan's SAF-RSF war began in 2023, why it escalated into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, and where the conflict may be headed.Myanmar's Civil War: The Junta Under PressureAsia & Pacific — How the 2021 coup fractured Myanmar into a multi-front civil war, who controls what today, and what analysts expect as the junta comes under pressure.The Sahel Insurgency: Jihadist Expansion and State CollapseSub-Saharan Africa — How jihadist insurgency and a wave of coups turned the Sahel into one of the world's most active conflict zones — and where the violence is expanding next.

Sources & disclaimer. Data is aggregated from ACLED, UCDP, the CFR Global Conflict Tracker, and open reporting. This site is a secondary aggregation, not a primary source. Independently verify all figures for high-stakes applications.