List of interstate wars since 1945 explained

This is a list of interstate wars since 1945. Interstate warfare has been defined as military conflict between separate states over a territory,^[1] including irregular military forces legitimized by the laws of war applicable to interstate wars due to the invasion or annexation being unlawful. This does not include civil wars and wars of independence, or smaller clashes with limited casualties (fewer than 100 combat deaths). The largest interstate war in history, World War II, involved most of the world's countries, after which the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945 to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts.^[2] The post-WWII era has, in general, been characterized by the absence of direct, major wars between great powers, such as the United States and (until 1991) the Soviet Union.^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

1945–1989

Denotes war with more than 10,000 combat deaths at minimum

Start	Finish	Name of conflict	States in conflict		Combat deaths
Start	Finish	Name of conflict	States in conflict		Min estimate	Max estimate
November 1945	December 15, 1946	Iran crisis of 1946		Azerbaijan People's Government	2,000+
22 October 1947	5 January 1949	Indo-Pakistani War of 1947		Pakistan	2,604	7,500
		1948 Arab–Israeli War	Israel	Jordan Syria Lebanon Saudi Arabia	13,073	26,373
		Operation Polo	India	Hyderabad	32,190	202,190
25 June 1950	27 July 1953^[8]	Korean War^[9]	UN Command Australia Belgium Canada France Philippines Ethiopia Greece Netherlands	China	2,568,927	4,096,927
6 October 1950	24 October 1950	Battle of Chamdo	China		294	5,814
		First Taiwan Strait Crisis	China		914	1,054
		Vietnam War	North Vietnam FNL Khmer Rouge Khmer Issarak Pathet Lao China	Thailand Australia New Zealand Philippines	1,326,494	3,447,494
		Suez Crisis	Israel^[10] ^[11] United Kingdom France	Egypt^[12]	2,848	4,198
1 November 1956		Soviet invasion of Hungary Part of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956		Hungary	3,222
		Ifni War	Spain France	Morocco	1,197
23 August 1958	2 December 1958	Second Taiwan Strait Crisis		China	1,054
17 April 1961	20 April 1961	Bay of Pigs Invasion	Cuba	DRF	2,298
19 July 1961	23 July 1961	Bizerte crisis	France	Tunisia	654	657
19 December 1961	15 August 1962	Operation Trikora	Indonesia	Netherlands	223
20 October 1962	21 November 1962	Sino-Indian War	China	India	2,105	6,197
20 January 1963	11 August 1966	Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation	Malaysia Singapore United Kingdom Australia New Zealand	Indonesia	874
25 September 1963	20 February 1964	Sand War	Morocco		69	500
6 February 1964	6 April 1964	1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War	Ethiopia		1,000	2,000
5 August 1965	23 September 1965	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965			6,800	13,459
5 October 1966	3 December 1969	Korean DMZ Conflict	South Korea		739
5 June 1967	10 June 1967	Six-Day War	Israel^[13]	Jordan Arab Expeditionary Forces: Iraq Saudi Arabia Morocco Algeria Kuwait Tunisia Sudan	12,336	19,264
1 July 1967	7 August 1970	War of Attrition	Israel	Cuba	6,442	14,290
20 August 1968	21 August 1968	Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia	Bulgaria Hungary Poland		254
14 July 1969	18 July 1969	Football War	El Salvador	Honduras	3,000
3 December 1971	16 December 1971	Indo-Pakistani War of 1971	India^[14] ^[15] ^[16]	Pakistan	11,500	12,843
6 October 1973	25 October 1973	Yom Kippur War		Combat support Iraq ^[17] ^[18] ^[19] ^[20]	10,521	21,300
20 July 1974	18 August 1974	Turkish invasion of Cyprus	Turkey	Cyprus Greece	6,009	9,509
April 1974	March 1975	1974–75 Shatt al-Arab conflict	Iran	Iraq	1,000+
30 October 1975	6 September 1991	Western Sahara War			10,000	20,000
7 December 1975	17 July 1976	Indonesian invasion of East Timor	Indonesia		51,000+
13 July 1977	23 March 1978	Ogaden War	Ethiopia Cuba South Yemen		39,836
21 July 1977	24 July 1977	Egyptian–Libyan War			500
29 January 1978	11 September 1987	Chadian–Libyan War	France		8,500+
9 October 1978	3 June 1979	Uganda–Tanzania War	Mozambique	Uganda	4,135	4,323
21 December 1978	26 September 1989	Cambodian–Vietnamese War	People's Republic of Kampuchea	Democratic Kampuchea Thailand	270,000	297,000
17 February 1979	16 March 1979	Sino-Vietnamese War			36,945	175,000
24 February 1979	19 March 1979	Yemenite War of 1979			1,084
16 March 1979	1 November 1991	Sino-Vietnamese conflicts (1979–1991)			6,000
24 December 1979	15 February 1989	Soviet–Afghan War		Afghan Mujahideen^[21] Afghan Interim Government (from 1988)	600,000	2,000,000
22 September 1980	20 August 1988	Iran–Iraq War	^[22]		405,000	1,200,000
		Falklands War	United Kingdom	Argentina	907
June 1982	August 1982	1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War		Ethiopia
	April	Chadian–Nigerian War	Nigeria	Chad	100+
		Invasion of Grenada	Antigua and Barbuda Barbados Dominica Jamaica Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Grenada Cuba	102
		Agacher Strip War	Mali	Burkina Faso	142
		First Nagorno-Karabakh War	Armenia	Azerbaijan	37,413	56,000
		Mauritania–Senegal Border War	Mauritania	Senegal	200+
		United States invasion of Panama		Panama	540	3,338

1990–present

Denotes war with more than 10,000 combat deaths at minimum

Start	Finish	Name of conflict	States in conflict		Combat deaths
Start	Finish	Name of conflict	States in conflict		Min. estimate	Max. estimate
		Persian Gulf War			29,231	59,231
2 November 1990	21 July 1992	Transnistria War			316	637
5 January 1991	24 June 1992	South Ossetia war (1991–1992)			1,000+
		Ten-Day War			76
		Croatian War of Independence			5,040	7,279
		Bosnian War^[23]
14 August 1992	27 September 1993	War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)			25,000	30,000
		Cenepa War	Peru	Ecuador	84	410
	16 May 1997	First Congo War	AFDL Rwanda Uganda Burundi Angola SPLA Eritrea	Sudan Chad Ex-FAR/ALiR Interahamwe CNDD-FDD UNITA ADF FLNC	235,000	250,000
	10 June 1999	Kosovo War			16,056	16,879
	18 June 2000	Eritrean–Ethiopian War	Ethiopia	Eritrea	53,000	300,000
	26 July 1999	Kargil War	India	Pakistan	884	5,600
	30 April 2000	Second Chechen War			20,000
	10 June 2000	African Six-Day War Part of the Second Congo War	Rwanda	Uganda	4,051+
		United States invasion of Afghanistan Part of the Afghan conflict	Northern Alliance		9,550	14,388
	1 May 2003	2003 invasion of Iraq	United Kingdom Australia Poland		10,996	53,016
	Ongoing	Gaza–Israel conflict			42,783
	4 July 2012	Pakistani-U.S. skrmishes Part of the War in Afghanistan		Pakistan	55
	12 August 2008	Russo-Georgian War		Georgia	730	737
	31 October 2011	2011 military intervention in Libya Part of the First Libyan Civil War		Libya	72	403+
	26 September 2012	Heglig Crisis			316	1,485
	Ongoing	Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war Part of the Syrian Civil War			645	671
	Ongoing	Russo-Ukrainian War (outline)	Ukraine		198,813
	Ongoing	American intervention in the Syrian civil war Part of the Syrian Civil War			192+
	5 April 2016	2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict			137	2,060
	Ongoing	Turkish occupation of northern Syria Part of the Syrian Civil War		North and East Syria	5,702+	10,705+
	6 March 2020	Operation Spring Shield Part of the Syrian Civil War			238	446
		Second Nagorno-Karabakh War	Azerbaijan	Armenia	7,726
15 December 2020	1 December 2022	Al-Fashaga conflict			97	108+

Notes and References

Ray . James Lee . 2002 . Does Interstate War Have A Future? . Conflict Management and Peace Science . 19 . 1 . 53–80 . 10.1177/073889420201900105 . 26273613 . 220780771 . 0738-8942. free .
Web site: History of the UN United Nations Seventieth Anniversary . 2022-03-09 . www.un.org.
Book: Gaddis, John Lewis . The Long Peace: Inquiries Into the History of the Cold War . Oxford University Press . 1989 . 0-19-504335-9 . registration.
Saperstein . Alvin M. . March 1991 . The "Long Peace"— Result of a Bipolar Competitive World? . The Journal of Conflict Resolution . 35 . 1 . 68–79 . 10.1177/0022002791035001004 . 153738298.
Duffield . John S. . 2009 . Explaining the Long Peace in Europe: the contributions of regional security regimes . Review of International Studies . 20 . 4 . 369–388 . 10.1017/S0260210500118170 . 145698353 . 0260-2105.
Fettweis . Christopher J. . 2017 . Unipolarity, Hegemony, and the New Peace . Security Studies . 26 . 3 . 423–451 . 10.1080/09636412.2017.1306394 . 0963-6412 . 148993870.
Web site: . 2013 . Human Security Report 2013: The Decline in Global Violence . 11 November 2018.
http://www.fas.org/news/dprk/1995/950313-dprk-usia.htm US State Department statement regarding "Korea: Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission" and the Armistice Agreement "which ended the Korean War."
Web site: The Korean War (article) 1950s America . 2022-03-18 . Khan Academy . en.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Suez_War.html "Israel Routs Egypt"
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/israel-invades-egypt-suez-crisis-begins#:~:text=The%20catalyst%20for%20the%20joint,Abdel%20Nasser%20in%20July%201956. "Israel invades Egypt; Suez Crisis begins"
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/arabunity/2008/02/200852517304630655.html "Nasser lost the war in military terms"
Web site: Six-Day War. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Book: Lyon, Peter . Conflict between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO . 2008 . 978-1-57607-712-2 . 166 . India's decisive victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war and emergence of independent Bangladesh dramatically transformed the power balance of South Asia . limited.
Book: Kemp, Geoffrey . The East Moves West India, China, and Asia's Growing Presence in the Middle East . Brookings Institution Press . 2010 . 978-0-8157-0388-4 . 52 . However, India's decisive victory over Pakistan in 1971 led the Shah to pursue closer relations with India . limited.
Book: Byman, Daniel . Deadly connections: States that Sponsor Terrorism . Cambridge University Press . 2005 . 978-0-521-83973-0 . 159 . India's decisive victory in 1971 led to the signing of the Simla Agreement in 1972 . limited.
Shazly, p. 278.
Book: Perez . Louis A. . Cuba Between Reform And Revolution . 2014 . Oxford University Press . 978-0199301447 . Paperback . 300 . Cuba also dispatched combat troops to Syria in 1973 during the Yom Kipur War.
Gott, Cuba, A New History, p. 280.
Book: Tobji, Mahjoub . Les officiers de Sa Majesté: Les dérives des généraux marocains 1956–2006 . Fayard . 2006 . 978-2213630151 . 107.
WHICH LAW APPLIES TO THE AFGHAN CONFLICT?. W. Michael Reisman, James Silk. 485-486. 82. 1988. American Journal of International Law.
Web site: 2021-09-22 . Iran 'won' the war with Iraq but at a heavy price . 2022-02-27 . Atlantic Council . en-US.
Web site: Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity: Topical Digests of the Case Law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Human Rights Watch. February 2004. 29 November 2017. 31 December 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211231131104/https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/ij/icty/2.htm. live. [F]or the period material to this case (1992), the armed forces of the Republika Srpska were to be regarded as acting under the overall control of and on behalf of the FRY (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). Hence, even after 19 May 1992 the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the Bosnian Serbs and the central authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be classified as an international armed conflict..