Global militarisation escalation: How proxy wars, arms races and geopolitical fragmentation deepen civilian suffering in Ukraine, Yemen, Gaza, Colombia
Original framing: “World News in Brief, ‘New intensity’ to Russian attacks on Ukraine, Yemen, Gaza and Colombia updates” — UN News
The voices of women like Svitlana Zalishchuk, who document civilian suffering in Ukraine, or Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman, who advocates for peace, are absent from the UN’s report, despite their critical role in exposing state violence. LGBTQ+ communities in Colombia and Gaza face targeted violence during conflicts, yet their experiences are erased from humanitarian narratives. Disability rights activists highlight how airstrikes disproportionately harm those with mobility impairments, but these testimonies are omitted. The report’s focus on 'civilians' as a homogenous category obscures the layered oppressions that shape who suffers most in these wars.
The UN’s framing of Russian attacks as isolated incidents obscures a systemic crisis where geopolitical rivalry, arms trade economics, and climate-induced migration converge to prolong conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen, Gaza, and Colombia.
Indigenous and feminist perspectives reveal how militarisation disrupts ancestral land stewardship and gendered power structures, while historical parallels expose the repetition of Cold War-era strategies under new technological guises. The trickster lens cuts through the solemnity of diplomatic language to expose how states and corporations profit from war, while cross-cultural frameworks like *ubuntu* or *wa* offer alternatives rooted in relational harmony. Solutions must integrate demilitarisation treaties, climate-conflict early warning systems, and participatory peacebuilding—grounded in the knowledge of those most affected, not the geopolitical calculations of distant powers.