Describes how assumptions about the nature of war have shaped our understanding of the modern world and the role of war within it.

Preface; 1. Towards a historical ontology of war; 2. The state of war; 3. Fortifying the state; 4. Wars of law, laws of war; Conclusion: the return of the repressed?; Bibliography.

Jens Bartelson is Professor of Political Science at Lunds Universitet, Sweden. He is the author of Visions of World Community (Cambridge, 2009), The Critique of the State (Cambridge, 2001), A Genealogy of Sovereignty (Cambridge, 1995), as well as of articles in leading journals in international relations, international law, political theory, and sociology.