Nato exercises in Bosnia

In the immediate aftermath of Desert Storm - the US-led coalition's successful operation to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait - a new world order beckoned.

With the Cold War over, there was a growing belief that diplomacy - backed by all of the great powers - would bring an end to regional tensions and wars.

But these hopes were short-lived as can be seen from a brief glance around the world's current trouble-spots.

The familiar ones - the Middle East, the Gulf, India's nuclear stand-off with Pakistan - appear no more tractable now that the Cold War is history.

And the very collapse of the Cold War order has ushered in a whole variety of new ethnic conflicts as old borders are contested and different groups struggle for power.

Many of these ethnic divisions existed before the Cold War shackles were removed. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and its hegemony over much of eastern and central Europe they have flared up anew.

All this places a huge burden on diplomacy. Attempts have to be made to try to resolve crises in an unfamiliar world where different policies have to be juggled and priorities are hard to set.

New priorities

Take the Balkans as an example. What exactly are western policy interests? There is clearly the quest for stability; the need to contain any conflict to prevent a wider conflagration. Then there are basic humanitarian principles; the need to halt widespread killing and relieve suffering.

But higher moral callings must fight it out with the concerns of day-to-day diplomacy. Nato and the West must juggle their relationship with Russia; Moscow is firmly opposed to military action.

Nato - does its role fit the new world order?

Nato itself must grapple with differing views within the Alliance as to the legal requirements necessary for any attack, and if there ARE air strikes, what happens afterwards?

It is easy to criticise the diplomatic chaos and uncertainty, much harder to craft a serious way through the diplomatic minefield facing western policy makers.

But their problems are not helped by the fact that a galaxy of international institutions - Nato, the EU, the UN Security Council - often with overlapping memberships grapple with the same problems and often provide rather different recipes.