ABSTRACT
The conventional stability which has developed between East and West explains the rationale for concentrating the greater part of this study in the Third World. This is not to say that the so-called ‘north’ is entirely stable, for the lifting of central Communist control over Central and Eastern Europe has uncovered, amongst others, the Balkan problem and also reminded us that ethnicity is neither a recent nor an un-European phenomenon. The inflammation of the Balkan ulcer has continued apace. However, there was no rush to intervene militarily by other concerned parties. There was an undoubted fear that intervention in Yugoslavia might create a precedent which would be applicable to other areas of turmoil within Europe. Was this, for example, a preview of what might happen in the former Soviet Union whose republics, to paraphrase something Charles de Gaulle said, each contained the seeds of another Algeria? Hopefully not, but the point is that these are not fertile areas for future successful military intervention.
