The Distribution of Power and International Outcomes: Conclusions 159
signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, also includes many areas that
are lacking in governability—Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Sinai—and that the
forced-state mechanisms have been replaced with prestate or nonstate
mechanisms that involve control by gangs and wielding horrific terrorism
against civilians.
In the previous century, three universal wars led to systemic changes—
the First and the Second World Wars and the Cold War. Although the cur-
rent century is only in its infancy, it will probably be identified with the
9/11 attacks, which had a limited degree of destruction and death toll, but
the events and changes occurring in their wake have made the world a dif-
ferent place and to a great extent a much more dangerous one.^5