Today is the anniversary of the Treaty of Sèvres, which dismembered the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. It's a day to make you think a bit.
A lot of the trouble in the last hundred odd years resulted from the power vacuum left by the Ottoman collapse. WWI itself - but much else besides. The territories ceded by the Ottomans at Sèvres is a chilling list of future trouble-spots: Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Hedjaz, Egypt, Soudan, Cyprus. (And don't forget the bits they gave up before WWI - Serbia, Bosnia, Libya...)
Remember how many centuries Europe was a mess of warring principalities after the Romans went home? Not cheerful.