ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the coming anarchy of the West African country. West Africa is becoming the symbol of worldwide demographic, environmental and societal stress, in which criminal anarchy emerges as the real 'strategic' danger. Sierra Leone is a microcosm of what are occurring, albeit in a more tempered and gradual manner, throughout West Africa and much of the underdeveloped world: the withering away of central governments, the rise of tribal and regional domains, the unchecked spread of disease, and the growing pervasiveness of war. The Western enforced Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, a consequence of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, has already exposed the fictitious nature of that supposed nation state. In Homer-Dixon's view, future wars and civil violence often rises from the scarcities of resources such as water, cropland, forests and fish. As Washington's influence wanes and with it the traditional symbols of American patriotism, North Americans take's the psychological refuge in their insulated communities and cultures.
