ABSTRACT
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in the summer of 1990 he abolished more than Kuwaiti independence. He also shattered the complacency of those who were dreaming of a stable and harmonious post-cold war New World Order for the 1990s which would set the stanchions in place for the political architecture of the twenty-first century. Within days George Bush and Mrs Thatcher were calling him Hitler; many Arabs, on the other hand, saw him as a champion and compared him to Nasser, even Saladin; Iraqis, hedging their bets, added the name of the pre-Islamic King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.
