ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that the end of the cold war era has ushered in a “world order” that is much more chaotic and potentially more threatening to the established international political and economic alignments than was the bipolar system wherein the United States and Soviet Union sought to maintain a balance of power. During the 1990s a wave of ethnic conflicts, some more enduring than others, spanned the global system. For example, Carment and James (1997) contend that by 1993, there were at least 48 existing or potentially violent ethnic conflicts in progress around the globe, while Gurr (1993: 1) identified 114 ethnic based conflicts. However, by 1996, the total number of conflicts with 1,000 or more battlefield causalities had decreased to pre-cold war levels. And, although such conflicts have always permeated the international community, it was not until the collapse of the Soviet system that they became globally salient. That is, such conflicts are viewed as fault lines that, if left unchecked, can rupture existing levels of global security.
