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The resolution of conflict is one of the most immediate international issues of our time. We are living in a period of great change. Powers decline while others emerge as the world moves to a new strategic accommodation. During the twentieth century, the strategic shifts have been marked by the two world wars and the Cold War. Each unleashed its own set of dynamics which led to the confrontation that followed. While the current strategic shift has seen the threat of global nuclear war recede, the end of the Cold War has also weakened the influence of the superpowers on their client-states and proxies. In the SO years after 1945, the Cold War seemed to contain many of the deep ethnic, religious and cultural tensions that have plagued modern history. The collapse of the Soviet Union’s capacity to pursue a global strategy led to the disintegration of the Soviet bloc and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union itself. The world’s remaining superpower, relieved of the security burdens imposed by its former adversary and denied the crystalline certainty of its role as the defender of freedom, is itself divided. It moves towards a new role only with uncertainty, while burgeoning domestic problems cast a shadow over its ability to sustain a coherent international commitment.