The Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century

Epilogue

Epilogue According to one authority, the number of armed conflicts around the globe dropped from about forty in the early 1980s to the low twenties in the early 1990s.Nearly all of these current wars are internal struggles, the most serious perhaps being the civil war in Yugoslavia,the first prolonged armed conflict in Europe since 1945. Though both Croatia and Slovenia made good their breakaway efforts from Yugoslavia, the Serbs have bitterly contested the secession of Bosnia-Herzegovina. To this writing, the most bitter fighting has occurred around Sarajevo, the city where the assassination of the Austrian archduke in 1914 set in train the events that led to the outbreak of the First World War. This conflict in the Balkans has been accompanied by so-called Serbian “ethnic cleansing” of Croats and Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina through atrocities and concentration camps-measures all too reminiscent of the Nazi “racial purification” efforts in the Second World War. Elsewhere,ethnic and religious differences have led to civil war in some former Soviet territories such as Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and still other armed conflicts continue in Africa and Asia. The war in African Angola has ended, perhaps momentarily, with a shaky peace following sixteen years of war and perhaps a million deaths. In Somalia, several years of civil war degenerated into such chaos that more people were dying of starvation than from the fighting. An estimated 30o,ooo Somalis have died as of this writing. Beginning in December 1992,a U.N.sanctioned armed intervention by U.S. and other national forces took place in Somalia on humanitarian grounds for the purpose of restoring a measure of order. In Asia, the U.N. presides over an uneasy truce in wartorn Cambodia, where a transitional government under Prince Norodom Sihanouk has been put in place. The Middle East is once more threatened by war as the result of Saddam Hussein’s continued violations of the Epilogue According to one authority, the number of armed conflicts around the globe dropped from about forty in the early 1980s to the low twenties in the early 199os. Nearly all of these current wars are internal struggles, the most serious perhaps being the civil war in Yugoslavia, the first prolonged armed conflict in Europe since 1945. Though both Croatia and Slovenia made good their breakaway efforts from Yugoslavia, the Serbs have bitterly contested the secession of Bosnia-Herzegovina. To this writing, the most bitter fighting has occurred around Sarajevo, the city where the assassination of the Austrian archduke in 1914 set in train the events that led to the outbreak of the First World War. This conflict in the Balkans has been accompanied by so-called Serbian "ethnic cleansing" of Croats and Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina through atrocities and concentration camps-measures all too reminiscent of the Nazi "racial purification" efforts in the Second World War. Elsewhere, ethnic and religious differences have led to civil war in some former Soviet territories such as Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and still other armed conflicts continue in Africa and Asia. The war in African Angola has ended, perhaps momentarily, with a shaky peace following sixteen years of war and perhaps a million deaths. In Somalia, several years of civil war degenerated into such chaos that more people were dying of starvation than from the fighting. An estimated 300,000 Somalis have died as of this writing. Beginning in December 1992, a U.N.sanctioned armed intervention by U.S. and other national forces took place in Somalia on humanitarian grounds for the purpose of restoring a measure of order. In Asia, the U.N. presides over an uneasy truce in wartorn Cambodia, where a transitional government under Prince Norodom Sihanouk has been put in place. The Middle East is once more threatened by war as the result of Saddam Hussein's continued violations of the Epilogue 325 U.N.-imposed sanctions after the Gulf War in 1991. And the aforementioned conflicts are only a few of the trouble spots around the world. Still, with the passing of the Cold War, the danger of war has been chiefly associated with lesser states rather than with great powers, their motives stemming from ultranationalism, ethnocentrism, conflicts of religion and culture, and the search for economic and military security. Thus, while the world continues to seek peaceful resolutions to the conditions that breed war, new patterns of war unfortunately continue to evolve. Perhaps it is reasonable to predict that in the near future...