Summary With the outbreak of civil war in Colombia, another country has fallen deeper into the ranks of the unstable. This has been a week of destabilizations. Iran appears to be moving toward internal crisis, Venezuela's political problems are deepening and conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is entering a new era. This troubling spread of instability is rooted in the current structure of the international system. As the world's only superpower, the United States' inevitable obsession with al Qaeda has contributed to this process of destabilization. Analysis Late Feb. 20, the Colombian government announced that it was abandoning its truce with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and launched what appears to be a coordinated and substantial attack on FARC-held territory. With that, another small portion of the world went from the brink of instability directly into war and potentially into chaos.