Introduction

When the Cold War between West and East drew to a close in the early 1990s many believed, or perhaps hoped, that, in the new global order, conflict and violent confrontation between modern nations might be a thing of the past. There was even an expectation of a peace dividend which would result in those states damaged by the pressures and stresses of confronting the forces of communism, recovering, rebuilding and reinvesting resources to make good the price of victory, whilst the nations of the former Eastern bloc looked forward to a world in which they could determine their futures without the burden of heavy military expenditure and the spectre of war. For a time these highly optimistic views and hopes swept world opinion along, famously fuelled by Francis Fukuyama’s infamous thesis about the conclusion of the Cold War and the end of history. ¹ To those caught up in conflicts across the globe in the early 1990s such hollow triumphalism resonated with irony; indeed, in the midst of the celebrations, in Europe itself, a ghastly and brutal series of wars driven by nationalist politics, religion and race erupted in the Balkans which poisoned Europe’s recovery for many years. On a wider scale, to those embroiled in long-running and bitter wars across the globe, the end of the confrontation between East and West impacted upon them little, in the short term at least.