THE WEST IS currently at an extraordinary peak of power. The USSR, its lone superpower opponent, has ceased to exist, and Western military power knows no rivals. Yet according to former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey, the world is "more dangerous" now than during the cold war because it is bombarded with ethnic, nationalist, and separatist conflicts that threaten world security. Ethnic conflicts have occurred throughout history; however, as David Callahan, project director of the Twentieth Century Fund, points out:

The huge increase in ethnic violence during recent years has left many observers wondering where it will end. Is the world at the beginning of a long cycle of ethnic conflict, or will some plateau of stability be reached in the next few years? No clear answer to this question exists, yet undoubtedly there is the...