The world suddenly faces an appalling health crisis. Once more, it originates largely in poverty and destitution-in developing world. AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles now kill 13 million people a year, and the numbers keep going up. They threaten to reverse decades of development in many developing countries. 

Wars between states have given way almost entirely to intrastate wars and armed conflicts. In 1999-2000 there were no fewer than fifty such wars, and they had killed 7 milion civilians since their inception. More than 90 percent of them since 1945 have taken place in developing countries. These conflicts increasingly draw surrounding countries into violence.

Just as education can equalize or divide countries and people, information and communications technologies can go either way. Right now, these technologies-even though they have sometimes advanced surprisingly in some developing countires -are very unevenly distributed. The resulting " digital divide " is of great concern.