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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/opinion/28tierney.html?You would never guess it from the news, but we're living in a peculiarly tranquil world. The new edition of "Peace and Conflict," a biennial global survey being published next week by the University of Maryland, shows that the number and intensity of wars and armed conflicts have fallen once again, continuing a steady 15-year decline that has halved the amount of organized violence around the world.
"I predict that the incidence of war will decline," told me in 1996, two years before his death. He based his prediction on the principle that there is less and less to be gained economically from war. As people get richer and smarter, their lives and their knowledge become far more valuable than the land, minerals and natural resources they used to fight over.
OK, Tierney's take is not particularly friendly to progressive ideas, but he has an important point here. And contrast it with Mr. Bush's tale to the Annapolis grads -- "graduating into a world at war." Two different worlds?
Actually, I think the decline in wars and the rise of terrorism are connected. Terror is a means chosen by those who would make war if they could, but lack the capacity to do it.
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