The beginning of the new millennium has been characterized by unrelenting
catastrophic disasters, natural and man-made, of various magnitudes. If, as the noted British
historian, Eric Hobsbawm called it, the 20th century was “the age of extreme” (Hobsbawm
1994), the 21st century from its very outset deems to be much worse1
. In the span of five
years since the beginning of the third millennium, the world has already fought two of the
most damning wars in human history (Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, both seen by the majority
of the world as unwarranted wars) following an unprecedented act of terrorism. War against
terrorism has been breeding terrorists and spreading violence around the globe. The threat of
nuclear arm race has been on the rise. Unprecedented ethnic and religious conflicts are
taking extremely ferocious forms resulting in enormous death tolls, massive dislocation and
displacement of refugees and victims of violence.