The New Strategic Environment
Just when the world expected a new era of peace with the end of the Cold War it was reminded that peace is not the natural state of man. No sooner had the demon of Soviet communism been exorcised than a dozen lesser demons rose to take its place.
A myriad of atavistic tribal, ethnic, religious and cultural (primal) conflicts have been exacerbated by overpopulation and diminishing resources. This spreading primalism has defied diplomatic or military resolution.The ancient rivalries now fueling world violence were in remission during the Cold War when the competing ideologies of communism and democracy took center stage. The Cold War held local violence in check with MAD (mutual assured destruction) strategies and ever-growing nuclear arsenals. With nuclear annihilation looming over the world, it is little wonder that local enemies were temporarily forgotten, with the superpowers the larger common enemy.
Threats legitimize might, and during the Cold War a palpable and pervasive Soviet threat justified a strong US defense. The dissolution of the Soviet Union upset the strategic balance of might and right; the once clear and present threat to US survival was replaced by more violence, but no discrete threat upon which to refocus strategies. Though not a traditional threat, spreading regional violence represents a cancer that could metastasize into terminal global anarchy.