A quick google search of conflicts or wars starting in the 1990's comes up around 60+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...0%E2%80%932002
However many of those conflicts did not invovle what we call the western nations (US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, NZ etc..) so perhaps it was not so much it was more peacful it's just that the effects of those conflicts were not felt as much by those countries.
Even going back to the 1980's there were a fair few conflicts, but that era was dominated by the cold war. I remember watching the Fall of the Berlin Wall, realisng that it marked a turning point in the cold war, i.e that it was coming to an end. Some people on this board will not have yet been born or be too young to realise what a turning point in History that event was.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...5%E2%80%931989