This article argues that the source of most contemporary violent conflicts is the profound erosion of the legitimacy of political authority, which is in part the heritage of authoritarianism and of the failure of earlier emancipatory projects, and is linked in turn to the impact of globalisation. Thus an important component of what is new about such conflicts since the end of the Cold War is their altered global character. They have certain distinctive features, although their evolution can be traced through earlier conflicts, particularly the struggles for national liberation in the 1960s and 1970s and the 'low intensity' warfare of the 1980s. To some extent, this reflects a change of perception after the end of the Cold War. During the latter, the East-West conflict in Europe dominated the way war was perceived, at least by the major powers. Armed conflicts, which took place outside the main theatre of imagined war, were either invisible or interpreted through the lens of the Cold War paradigm.
展开▼
