What wars are currently going on in 2026?
Executive summary
As of early 2026, several high-intensity wars are active and a larger set of protracted civil wars, insurgencies and regional flashpoints threaten to either persist or escalate; among the most visible are the Russia–Ukraine war and the Israel–Gaza/Israel–Palestine fighting, while civil wars in Sudan, Myanmar and Yemen continue to devastate populations [1] [2] [3] [4]. Policymakers and analysts warn that great‑power contingencies—such as a crisis in the Taiwan Strait or clashes between Russia and NATO—remain serious risks that could dramatically widen the scale of conflict in 2026 [5].
1. Major interstate wars and protracted battlefields: Ukraine and Israel–Gaza
The war between Russia and Ukraine remains a principal war theatre in 2026, with assessments noting continued mutual attacks on infrastructure and cities and sustained high-intensity operations that keep it central to global security planning [5] [1]. Equally, the long-running Arab‑Israeli confrontation flared into the Gaza war and, despite periodic pauses described as a “tenuous halt,” the humanitarian emergency and risk of regional spillover persist into 2026 [3] [2] [1].
2. Civil wars and insurgencies causing mass suffering: Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen and Syria
Sudan’s civil war is repeatedly singled out as an acute, likely‑to‑escalate conflict that has produced mass civilian casualties and displacement and remains a top “conflict to watch” for 2026 [3] [6] [7]. Myanmar’s long‑running civil war re‑intensified after the 2021 coup and is counted among the world’s most persistent internal wars, while the multifaceted conflict in Yemen—featuring Iran‑aligned Houthi forces—continues to rank as a major regional war or sustained insurgency [4] [8]. Fighting in Syria, despite regime changes on paper, continues in multiple forms and contributes to ongoing violence and instability [4].
3. Regional flashpoints and high‑risk escalatory scenarios
Beyond active wars, analysts place a suite of flashpoints at high risk of sparking wider conflict: a crisis in the Taiwan Strait could draw major powers into direct combat, and increased Russia–NATO friction is assessed as an even‑chance contingency for 2026 [5]. Other regional dangers—Venezuela tensions, prolonged violence in the Sahel, and the collapse or severe insecurity in places such as Haiti and parts of Latin America—are highlighted as lower‑visibility but strategically important risks [8] [1] [9].
4. The broader set of “wars” versus armed conflicts and how they’re counted
Different trackers and scholars use distinct thresholds for what counts as a “war”: databases like the Uppsala Conflict Data Program classify wars by reaching at least 1,000 battle‑related deaths in a calendar year, and public compilations map dozens of ongoing armed conflicts that fall under varying labels—war, civil war, insurgency, drug war or “frozen conflict”—which complicates any single definitive list for 2026 [10] [11]. ACLED and other watchlists therefore prioritize a shorter list of countries projected to face the worst violence and humanitarian emergencies in 2026 rather than claiming to enumerate every armed dispute [6] [4].
5. Where attention is focused and what to expect next
Think‑tank and conflict‑tracking outputs converge on three near‑term themes for 2026: persistent high‑intensity combat in Ukraine and the Levant, continued devastation from civil wars in places such as Sudan, Myanmar and Yemen, and a mounting risk that localized crises or great‑power tensions could trigger far wider wars with global consequences [5] [3] [6]. Analysts caution that multiple, simultaneous crises—humanitarian collapse in civil wars and the specter of interstate escalation—make 2026 likely to be as volatile as the prior year unless diplomatic and conflict‑mitigation efforts are substantially stepped up [2] [7].