ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union has certainly changed the international order, but it has done so in a negative rather than a positive way. Sudden, unexpected, and unplanned for, the end of the Cold War has produced no social or political settlement, no concordat, to organize international relations and military operations for the foreseeable future. This chapter elaborates on the themes as concretely as possible, to deepen our understanding of the sociocultural forces to which the military establishment has to adapt and to indicate, in broad strokes, what the possibilities for adaptation are. It begins by clarifying what we mean by the otherwise murky notion of a "multicentric world." Analysis of military threats is rooted firmly in the tradition of political realism. Among the new missions national armed forces are taking on, one of the most important is participation in multinational peacekeeping operations.
