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Interesting piece.

Perhaps there is another possibility. The continuation of the present state, a sort of Pax Romana, is predicated on the ability of the UN and its member states to influence combatants. I recognize that this is taken as a given.

But what if this assumption is wrong? What if, for whatever reason, the UN becomes less capable of projecting force? Might the accumulated pressures along numerous geopolitical fault lines result in a chaotic scenario of simultaneous war in a variety of locations by different groups of combatants?

The fate of the former Yugoslavia seems to suggest that mere suppression of conflict does nothing to eliminate the passions that drive war. I wonder if the decades of relative peace might not be supplanted by a period of general conflict as states accomplish a long-deferred adjustment.