The cold war helped fuel many conflicts, for instance in Angola and Mozambique, where superpowers backed rival factions.

ECONOMIST: Failed states

The end of the cold war, the local conflicts that followed and the growing threat of international terrorist networks have all redrawn old notions about the limits of foreign intervention.

ECONOMIST: From Bosnia, East Timor, and other fragile places

Most important of all, the nature of most conflicts has changed over the past decade, from cold-war face-offs between well-supplied proxies to regional free-for-alls.

ECONOMIST: Controlling the world's guns | The

Regional Settlements: The Bush administration has been assiduously working to develop agreements with Moscow that will end various regional conflicts between former superpower proxies now viewed by Washington as expensive throwbacks to the Cold War.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Too clever by half