ABSTRACT
Nationalism in Germany and Japan during the inter-war period and World War Two, with its xenophobic feelings of superiority vis-à-vis other national groups, illustrates the point. Yugoslavia's break-up graphically illustrates the dark side of ethnic nationalism and how, in the words of one observer, "animosity among ethnic groups is beginning to rival the spread of nuclear weapons as the most serious threat to peace that the world faces." In the former Soviet Union ethnic national tensions have escalated dramatically since its break-up into the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991. The conflagration of ethnic national conflicts flaring up across the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia has raised a host of national security questions for the United States and the West. Considerable debate has emerged concerning the use of force in the turbulent new international system in the context of United States national security decision-making.
