ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet Union has caused a further change that is even more momentous and has an even broader impact: the entire importance of military and diplomatic strength on the world scene has been drastically reduced. Within the central arena of world affairs, where North Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and other advancing nations both collaborate and compete, military-diplomatic strength has suddenly lost its historic importance. In the milder circumstances of Western Europe, the proliferation of separatisms is so far mainly linguistic. Among the winder implications of separatism's rise, the first is that conventional risk assessments must be revised to include the possible direct or indirect impact of separations. Second, there is a definite tendency for separatism to induce further separatism. The global rise of separatism does not only threaten violence in traditional hot spots and political aggravation even in developed Western Europe.
