Changing Shape of Wars Demands Revised Foreign Policy

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to substantially reduce their respective nuclear arsenals. But Mr. Bush has not yet been able to convince Putin to agree to a U.S. withdrawal from the outmoded 1972 ABM treaty.

Mutually assured destruction - with the old Soviet Union and United States pointing ICBM's at each other - is a relic of the Cold War. The new wars - fourth generation wars as one person has called them - will be between cultures, not necessarily between nation-states.

We are seeing an example of that in the current war with the Taliban, a rogue group of Islamic terrorists who took over a country and became its government without the consent of the governed. These will be the conflicts of the immediate future. There will be roving bands of enemies, seeking where and how they may devour Americans and America.

We are going to need a new strategy and a new resolve for dealing with them.