The state of global conflict in 2025

While Gaza and Ukraine captured headlines this year, nearly 60 other wars and armed struggles are raging around the world—the most active conflicts since the end of WWII. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer is joined by CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward and Comfort Ero, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group to look back on the conflicts that defined our world in 2025, both the headline-making wars and the ones the world overlooked.

Ward spent much of her time in conflict zones this year, covering the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and the rebuilding of Syria after the fall of Assad. She says that international journalists are still not being allowed into most of Gaza, despite the ceasefire, making it hard to platform Palestinian voices and convey the reality of the situation on the ground. Ero says it’s important to keep talking about Ukraine and Gaza, but the world is paying far less attention to conflicts in places like Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti, the DR Congo, and Cambodia. She also warns that 2026 could bring new wars, like in the South China Sea, where China is building up military capabilities for a potential invasion of Taiwan.

“I think people are feeling overwhelmed by the number of conflicts that they are expected to care about, know about. It feels like overwhelm and overload,” Ward tells Bremmer, “I try to mitigate that by finding human stories that move you to feel empathy.”