1992年，全世界都在电视中看到了骨瘦如柴的索马里人，其实在非洲许多其他地方的灾难都差不多，但如果记者的摄像机没有拍到，世人就觉得没有责任。国际社会认为应该为索马里人做点什么，于是救济物资开始到达索马里。但军阀们并不关心平民百姓的生死，他们只想养活自己的战士去夺取更多的地盘，于是救援人员被枪击，粮食被抢走，志愿人士不得不撤出了索马里。

由于冷战已经结束，索马里既非战略重地也没有任何有价值的战略资源，因此一开始美国对此并不感兴趣。当联合国主动要求美国提供协助时，老布什接下了这个形象工程，派遣军队运送救援物资。但索马里情况持续恶化，迫使联合国通过新决议，用武力来维持索马里治安和救济行动，强制实行和平。

In Somalia and the former Yugoslavia, the Bush administration encountered some of the first challenges to the New World Order. Near the end of his term, President Bush committed U.S. troops to Somalia to help ease a humanitarian crisis after the breakdown of civil society and the onset of mass famine and starvation. Although the operation was initially successful in helping to feed the Somali people, President Bill Clinton ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia after eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed in Mogadishu, the country's capital, in October 1993. "Operation Restore Hope" left many people wondering whether the United States should intervene in other countries when U.S. interests were not clearly at stake.

When Yugoslavia began to break apart, the Bush administration had hoped to persuade the various players to avoid violence and bloodshed and proceed with the breakup using a democratic process. The administration also hoped to see the European Community take the lead in resolving a conflict occurring in its own backyard, especially because some European countries seemed to chaff under U.S. leadership during the Persian Gulf War. And although the United States worked with the EC and the UN to take political, diplomatic, and economic steps to try to stop the conflict from escalating, they were unsuccessful. Many of President Bush's advisers felt that military action in the former Yugoslavia would more likely resemble the morass of Vietnam rather than the success of the Persian Gulf War. When President Bush left office, the former Yugoslavia republics were in the midst of wars that would continue for years to come.

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