Conflict After the Cold War

Updated in its 4th edition, Conflict After the Cold War assembles classic and contemporary readings on enduring problems of international security. Edited by one of the most renowned scholars in the field, Richard Betts, this text offers a broad historical and philosophical breadth, with carefully chosen and excerpted selections. This popular reader helps engage key debates over the future of war and the new forms that violent conflict will take. Conflict After the Cold War encourages closer scrutiny of the political, economic, social, and military factors that drive war and peace.

* Selections new to the fourth edition.

Part I. Visions of War and Peace

Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History?"

John J. Mearsheimer, "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War"

Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”

* Fareed Zakaria, “Economics Trumps Politics”

Part II. International Realism: Anarchy and Power

Thucydides, "The Melian Dialogue"

Niccolo Machiavelli, "Doing Evil in Order to Do Good"

Thomas Hobbes, "The State of Nature"

Edward Hallett Carr, "Realism and Idealism"

Kenneth N. Waltz, “The Origins of War in Neorealist Theory”

Robert Gilpin, "Hegemonic War and International Change"

Geoffrey Blainey, "Power, Culprits, and Arms"

Part III. International Liberalism: Institutions and Cooperation

Immanuel Kant, "Perpetual Peace"

Richard Cobden, “Peace Through Arbitration”

Woodrow Wilson, "Community of Power vs. Balance of Power"

Michael W. Doyle, "Liberalism and World Politics"

Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, "Power and Interdependence"

Part IV. Psychology: The Human Mind and International Conflict

Sigmund Freud, "Why War?"

Stanley Milgram, "How Good People Do Bad Things"

Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon, "Why Hawks Win"

* Robert Jervis, “War and Misperception”

Part V. Culture: Customs, Norms, and Learning

Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It"

* Richard Ned Lebow, “Spirit, Standing, and Honor”

Margaret Mead, "War is Only an Invention, Not a Biological Necessity"

John Mueller, "The Obsolescence of Major War"

Martha Finnemore, "Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention"

J. Ann Tickner, "Men, Women, and War"

Part VI. Economics: Interests and Interdependence

Niccolo Machiavelli, "Money is Not the Sinews of War..."

Norman Angell, "The Great Illusion"

Geoffrey Blainey, "Paradise is a Bazaar"

V.I. Lenin, "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism"

Joseph Schumpeter, "Imperialism and Capitalism"

Alan S. Milward, "War as Policy"

Kenneth N. Waltz, "Structural Causes and Economic Effects"

Richard Rosecrance, "Trade and Power"

Part VII. Politics: Ideology and Identity

Ernest Gellner, "Nations and Nationalism"

Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, "Democratization and War"

Chaim Kaufmann, "Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars"

Radha Kumar, "The Troubled History of Partition"

Part VIII. Military Technology, Strategy, and Stability

Robert Jervis, "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma"

Jack S. Levy, "The Offensive/Defensive Balance of Military Technology"

Charles Fairbanks and Abram Shulsky, "Arms Control: Historical Experience"

Kenneth N. Waltz, "The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Be Better"

Part IX. Revolution, Unconventional Warfare, and Terrorism

Martha Crenshaw, “The Logic of Terrorism”

Mark Juergensmeyer, “Religious Radicalism and Political Violence”

Osama bin Ladin, "Speech to the American People"

Mark Sageman, "Jihadi Networks of Terror"

T. E. Lawrence, “Science of Guerrilla Warfare”

Mao Tse-tung, “On Guerrilla Warfare”

Samuel P. Huntington, “Patterns of Violence in World Politics”

* David Galula, “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency”

* Eliot Cohen, Conrad Crane, Jan Horvath, and John Nagl, “Principles, Imperatives, and Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency”

* Gian P. Gentile, “A Strategy of Tactics: The Folly of Counterinsurgency”

Part X. New Threats and Strategies for Peace

Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, "Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict"

* Indra de Soysa, “Ecoviolence”

G. John Ikenberry and Anne-Marie Slaughter, "A World of Liberty Under Law"

Richard K. Betts and Thomas J. Christensen, "China: Can the Next Superpower Rise Without War?"

Richard K. Betts is the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the director of the International Security Policy Program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow for National Security Studies on the Council of Foreign Relations, acommissioner to the National Commission on Terrorism, and former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. His research interests include national security, military strategy, and international conflict, and he has published numerous articles on foreign policy, military strategy, intelligence operations, conventional forces, nuclear weapons, arms trade, collective security, strategic issues in Asia, and other subjects.

Expert Reviews

“Conflict After the Cold War is a classic and first-rate reader that addresses enduring problems of international security and admirably represents a variety of theoretical orientations without overreliance on contemporary squabbles. By including classical and current readings, it helps students understand the important ideas—not just the names—behind theories of war and peace.”—Christopher Marcoux, College of William and Mary

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