Unprecedented threats to peace

Though abstract, such issues affect the lives of millions. Hans Corell, former legal counsel to the United Nations, points out that between 1945 and 2008 conflict claimed between 92 and 101 million lives: more than double the number of casualties suffered in World War I and World War II combined. Looking forward into the 21st century, drivers of conflict lurk like roadside bombs. ‘Humankind is presently facing its greatest challenges ever’, he says. An anticipated 40 per cent rise in the global population by 2050, coupled with climate change that could make large areas of land uninhabitable, suggests competition for scarce resources – an established deep cause of genocide – will threaten peace as never before.