Ungovernable Ethno-religious Entities

Ungovernable Ethno-religious Entities After the Cold War ended, approximately in 1990, journalist Robert Kaplan pointed out that future peacekeeping, no matter how moral or well-intentioned, will not work where religious and ethno-tribal concerns are generating new kinds of civil warfare for which the large nation-states remain ill-prepared. Instead of enjoying economic and social progress in this new era, many countries are degenerating into ungovernable ethno-religious entities that are as yet undefined in the world political arena. In a world in which the two Cold War superpowers no longer divide the globe into two clearly defined blocs with the Third World competing for the attention of both, Americans have learned that the notion of a peace dividend is pure folly. What has transpired is the unexpected reemergence of older and vastly more brutal kinds of racial, ethnic, and religious conflicts. Cultures, not countries, are now battling one another for control of their respective turfs. Armies no longer represent the interests of sovereign nation-states. The entire notion of nation-states is in trouble, as the former Third World cultures fight civil wars in protracted, low-intensity conflicts. Criminals, once in the back water of international relations, have surfaced with high-tech weapons and, in some cases, very sophisticated electronic intelligence and communication services. War and crime will become virtually indistinguishable in the twenty-first century. How far off is Robert Kaplan’s analysis? Consider 9/11? Terrorist attacks real and thwarted here and abroad? Thirteen unlucky ( or lucky so far) years into the 21st century?