After the relative stability of the Cold War period, the ICRC has been working since the late 1980s in an environment marked by major upheavals and conflicts whose main feature is total anarchy. The author looks at the response to this situation from various angles: those of operations (the Gulf War, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda), policy (the ICRC position on the "right to intervene" and on military operations undertaken on humanitarian grounds), and politics (in particular, the need for the international community to ensure greater respect for humanitarian law, and cooperation between organizations).