There is a real security gap in the world today. Millions of peoplein regions like the Middle East or East and Central Africa orCentral Asia where new wars are taking place live in daily fear ofviolence. Moreover new wars are increasingly intertwined with otherglobal risks the spread of disease, vulnerability to naturaldisasters, poverty and homelessness. Yet our security conceptions,drawn from the dominant experience of World War II and based on theuse of conventional military force, do not reduce that insecurity;rather they make it worse.
This book is an exploration of this security gap. It makes thecase for a new approach to security based on a global conversation-a public debate among civil society groups and individuals as wellas states and international institutions. The chapters follow onfrom Kaldors path breaking analysis of the character of new wars inplaces like the Balkans or Africa during the 1990s.
The first four chapters provide a context; they cover theexperience of humanitarian intervention, the nature of Americanpower, the new nationalist and religious movements that areassociated with globalization, and how these various aspects ofcurrent security dilemmas have played out in the Balkans. The lastthree chapters are more normative, dealing with the evolution ofthe idea of global civil society, the relevance of just war theoryin a global era, and the concept of human security and what itmight mean to implement such a concept.
This book will appeal to all those interested in issues of peaceand conflict, in particular to students of politics andinternational relations.