No doubt, the immediate cause for the sudden rise in the price of oil and gasoline is fear of disruptions in the supply of oil due to unrest in the Middle East and the growing risk of war with Iran.

FORBES: How to Stop the Spike In the Price of Gasoline

"The fear of nuclear war has diminished partly because the risk has receded significantly with the end of the Cold War, " says Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute.

BBC: How did we forget about mutually assured destruction?

And did Estonia's assistance to Georgia, which is not in NATO, risk drawing Estonia into the war, and NATO along with it?

ECONOMIST: Are the mouse and keyboard the new weapons of conflict?

In Kosovo, too, much energy was devoted to helping the return of people displaced by war, even if they had to take the risk of coexisting with old foes.

ECONOMIST: Repatriating refugees

Even CNN correspondent Arwa Damon, with her vast experience of reporting from war zones, had reservations about the high-risk job.

CNN: Life and death under Syria's military onslaught