Book
New Wars

Since the mid-1980s there have been substantial cuts in military spending everywhere except Pacific Asia. The reasons are both political, such as the end of the Cold War, democratization in Africa and Latin America, and economic, with structural adjustment programmes, debt and cuts in public spending. This is the first volume of a study by the United Nations University to investigate the changes taking place world-wide in armed forces, arms industries and all other military-related activity. The main conclusion of the study is that a fundamental transformation is taking place in the nature of warfare. It argues that recent wars arose from the disintegration of state structures. Participation in wars is low, compared with earlier wars, as are casualties. However, the new wars are very disruptive in social terms. The book argues that it is possible to identify a certain logic to the new wars which can be analyzed so as to provide a basis for alternative forms of conflict prevention and resolution. New Wars is the first of a three-volume study commissioned by UNU/WIDER to investigate the changes taking place worldwide in armed forces, arms industries, and all other military-related activities.