The third World War?

Osama bin Laden does not speak for Islam. However, it is his objective to do so, so this is a war about the future of Islam, and therefore about the governance of all states with Muslim populations, and all conflicts in which Muslim groups are directly involved. These conflicts occupy much of the current international agenda, taking in the Middle East, the Gulf, the Balkans, Central and East Asia, and parts of Africa. While the individual conflicts still have their critical distinctive features, a global struggle of sorts is emerging that cannot but shake up local and global political structures, often in quite surprising and unintended ways. Whether or not international politics will be so transformed at the end of this process that it can be described as the 'third world war' remains to be seen. A key test will be how the United States emerges from this as an international actor.