Of Order and Chaos

Although the Falklands crisis has in no sense contributed to the search for a world order, it has at least clarified some of the issues. It has, for instance, demonstrated both the impotence and the marginal utility of the United Nations. It has demonstrated that in confrontations that fall short of Armageddon, it may be more useful to have a good supply of French-made Exocet missiles than of Trident IIs.

Another thing the crisis has done is to focus attention, yet again, on the improbability and indeed the ultimate undesirability of world order; and therefore on the necessity of a less ambitious and more practical search for a tolerable limitation of international disorder.

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Brian Crozier

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Although the Falklands crisis has in no sense contributed to the search for a world order, it has at least clarified some of the issues. It has, for instance, demonstrated both the impotence and the marginal utility of the United Nations. It has demonstrated that in confrontations that fall short of Armageddon, it may be more useful to have a good supply of French-made Exocet missiles than of Trident IIs.

Another thing the crisis has done is to focus attention, yet again, on the improbability and indeed the ultimate undesirability of world order; and therefore on the necessity of a less ambitious and more practical search for a tolerable limitation of international disorder.