ABSTRACT
International organizations and individual nations are being forced to confront what United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has termed "hard decisions" as they re-examine the traditional definition of sovereignty and intervention in their struggle to resolve intrastate conflicts and salvage failed or faltering states. The modem world's legal and political structure originated with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Sovereignty has been viewed in terms of protecting the physical and political integrity of states from external forces. The end of the cold war transformed the existing imperatives concerning international security and the concept of sovereignty. Intervention in the internal affairs of states and the alteration of sovereignty will never be without potential hazards to all involved. Greater efforts must be expended on conflict avoidance than on conflict resolution. Dealing with the new world realities and the associated gray area phenomena will not be a quick or comfortable process.
