Before trying to answer this question, we need to empirically examine some new and unique international phenomena in the post-cold war era. Yes, we certainly experienced some relative peace in world politics since we have not observed another World War in three decades although there are some regional conflicts, such as in the Middle East. In Europe, the Kosovo and Bosnia wars are basically ethnic conflicts in nature but with external interventions. One interesting empirical observation in the post-cold war world is what has been termed “Asian exceptionalism.”4 There is no military conflict among nations in Asia after the cold war even though there are territorial disputes as well as some unfinished warfare between states.