The New World Order

I'm reading Tom Clancy's latest non-fiction, 'Battle Ready', written with Gen. Tony Zinni (who's been in the news this week for saying the Iraq plan was faulty(That's not why I'm reading it. I've read all the other books in this series.)). Zinni's got some really good stuff on the 90s post-USSR.

+ instead of investing in a New World Order, economically and with some military structure (a la the Marshall Plan), we just cut aid and the military (ie, The Peace Divdend) and got a big fat mess. People want to blame Clinton for downsizing the military, but it started under Bush the 1st.
+ the East-West struggle of 50 years only deferred the North-South struggle that was brewing.
+ our current conflicts are between non-state entities - terrorist groups, globalized corporations, and NGOs.
+ the military downsizing and the too-fast way it was handled was devastating to the function of the services, including morale.
+ General George Galvin, CINCEUR, wanted to use NATO to facilitate the military changes in the former Soviet Union, along with a Marshall Plan for them. It didn't happen.
+ the eastern side of the Iron Curtain experienced a peace catastrophe. 'The Soviets were bankrupt. There was no dividend because there was no capital.' (p181) The peace added to instability. The Cold War, at least, had provided stability.
+ EUCOM was srestling with the issue of the Balkans as early as 1990: could we afford to just let it 'Balkanize'? (The answer is 'no', but we let it happen anyway.)