Even emergency food and medical aid from international relief agencies can become a weapon when those in power restrict distribution to their loyalists. Rwanda , Somalia, Afghanistan, and the northern exception, Bosnia . But they represent merely the tip of the sword. From 1989 to 1995, some 85 wars were fought from Azerbaijan to the former Zaire. From 1992 to 94 alone, an estimated 980,000 people were combat casualties in 22 conflicts.
War shows every sign of being a well-oiled machine still operating with deadly efficiency.
But something is different. With diminished foreign aid, these Third World governments are unable to maintain public order or guarantee property rights. Local strongholds develop with warlords controlling resources. Warfare becomes privatized, and violence acquires its own logic, divorced from politics. It shows its face in the urban strife of fragmented Third World societies.