Violent Conflict in the 21st Century

The end of the Cold War reduced the importance of certain well-studied issues such as deterrence, limited war, arms races and alliance structures. The concept of security studies had to be redefined to encompass resource, economic, environmental, demographic, and cultural issues. Against a background of changing international politics, the Academy convened a multidisciplinary conference to analyze the direction of international security, to explore current and foreseeable sources of conflict, to examine the instruments that might be used in these conflicts, and to discuss ways that future conflicts might be mitigated. The resulting report provides a way of thinking and teaching about new research directions and policy agendas for international security studies in the coming decades.