Developments in Modern Warfare

With the end of the Cold War and considering the ease with which the United States-led coalition defeated the Iraqi military in the 1990–91 Gulf War, many saw the emergence of a new period of peaceful international relations that would be governed by the rule of law backed by overwhelming US military power. The myth of the ‘new world order’ was quickly shattered, however, when a series of violent clashes erupted between various substate entities in the Middle East, Yugoslavia, Africa and countries of the former Soviet Union. In total there were 95 armed conflicts in the world between January 1990 and the end of 1995.1 Many of these conflicts had been previously suppressed by the two superpowers, either as a result of Soviet hegemony over the region (the Balkans and Caucasus) or direct superpower rivalry overriding local patterns of enmity (the Middle East and, to a lesser extent, Africa). Without the Cold War dynamics overriding local relations, political crises over ethnic animosities, socioeconomic imbalances and internal and regional political competition came to the fore for ethnic, communal, state and regional leaders.2 In addition the United States, far from happy with the role of ‘world enforcer’, was reluctant or incapable of responding to acts of aggression. Moreover most of these conflicts did not begin as interstate wars with a clear violation of international rules and norms but rather as substate conflicts between rival ethnic or communal groups.