War in the new international order

The Western world is confused by the nature of war and conflict in the cont emporary world. It is confused by the trends in conflict which are at once both encouraging and alarming; and it is confused by the position in which Western powers find themselves, having manifest military superiority but an equally manifest uncertainty over whether, and how, to use it. The books u nder discussion here represent different ways of tackling these problems an d form a representative spectrum of the arguments currently circulating in the literature on conflict and war. There is general agreement that Western military power is somehow 'out of sync' with the key trends in world polit ics, representing twentieth-century military power in a very Literal sense. It is potentially omnipotent but will not risk losses: it confirms the pow er of the strong, yet the conflicts that matter take place among the weak; and its very omnipotence encourages the weak to search for new political we apons. As a discipline, international Relations is only now getting to grip s with what all this. might imply for the future of conflict, human behavio ur, statehood and institutions, and for the circumstances which dictate lif e (and death) for the majority of humanity.