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

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.

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.