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Having apparently abandoned war as a device for settling their own quarrels, developed countries, in the wake of the Cold War, have had an opportunity to cooperate to deal with the two chief remaining sources of artificial or human-made death: civil war and vicious regimes. In addition, international law has evolved to allow them to do so, variously conferring legitimacy on most international policing measures even when they involve the use of military force and even when they violate the policed country's sovereignty.

Public support for the war in Iraq has followed the same course as it did for the wars in Korea & Vietnam: broad enthusiasm at the outset with erosion of support as casualties mount. The experience of those past wars suggests that there is nothing President Bush can do to reverse this deterioration -- or to stave off an "Iraq syndrome" that could inhibit U.S. foreign policy for decades to come. Adapted from the source document.

It is contended that limiting states territorial expansion has substantially reduced international conflicts in the post-WWII world. Despite the almost complete dissolution of communism during the late 20th century, it is demonstrated that the global order continues to be plagued by two substantial problems: the persistence of civil war & the emergence of governments that use violence against domestic populations. Even though international policing efforts achieved varying levels of success prior to the Second Gulf War, it is shown that several obstacles preventing developed nations from establishing an effective policing regime to handle civil war & violent governments presently exist including leaders willingness to explain internecine conflict as the product of long-standing hostilities between groups & nations reluctance to accept casualties in humanitarian interventions. After detailing how these impediments doomed the US-led coalitions intervention in Iraq, the effects of the Second Gulf War for US foreign policy are pondered, eg, the entrenchment of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense. It is concluded that the establishment of effective domestic governments would substantially reduce internecine conflict & discourage governments use of violence against domestic populations. Figures. J. W. Parker