We are also participating in and contributing to the consolidation of peace and stability in countries threatened by fragmentation and balkanization.

The US wanted to establish a democratic Iraq. Instead, after a US withdrawal, the country might fall apart, possibly leading to balkanization of the Middle East, with extremely dangerous consequences for the whole region.

The consequence of the international community s increasing balkanization is that consensus oriented conferences tend to end in impasses. These failures do not mean that most people around the world do not see eye to eye on these issues, or that they are unprepared to make timely, even courageous, decisions.

Syria s balkanization among the country s diverse ethnic and religious groups is a clearly predictable result. Indeed, a Bosnia type scenario can no longer be excluded, while the prospect of the Syrian government s loss of control over its chemical weapons poses an immediate threat of military intervention by Turkey, Israel, or the US.

Whether Iraq can be held together despite the ethnic and religious confrontations that pit Kurds against Arabs and Sunnis against the Shi a is one of the most pregnant questions for the new Middle East. For Iraq s disintegration would be hard to contain indeed, it could bring about a thorough balkanization of the region.

This kind of conflict directly contradicts the promise of globalization namely, that access to foreign food and energy would enable countries to concentrate on their comparative advantages. If emerging conflicts and competitive pressures lead to, say, economic sanctions or the obstruction of key trade routes, the resulting balkanization of global trade would diminish globalization s benefits substantially.