The Legacy of Desert Storm: A European Perspective

This essay argues that the Gulf War, far from instituting a new regional order, has contributed to an imbalance in the region that could lead to further instability. A crumbling social fabric in Iraq, Kurdish fighting in the north, an intensification of the Kurdish war in Turkey, "impoverishment" of the Gulf dynasties, rising militarization of the region, and a reversal of the democratization trends of the beginning of the decade are all part of the harvest of the war. Even the Arab-Israeli peace process, a cornerstone of the new order envisaged by President Bush, in the long run can only lead, by its increasingly manifest unfairness, to further instability.