Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals, inter alia, with behaviour and, specifically, war. It deals with seven types of such violence, in order of relative frequency: ethno-national, anti-regime, inter-ethnic, inter-state, decolonization, gang wars and genocide. The book relates wars to the global transformation based on the diffusion and deepening of global capitalism and the conditions they define for the internal and external relations of states. It goes with non-metaphysical aspects of territoriality as a conflict issue, investigating its content and discussing under what circumstances we may expect a linkage between territoriality and violent conflict. The book uses economic development and environmental change and scarcity as guiding concepts to elaborate the observation. It goes with the process of escalation and timing of conflict management. The book focuses on third-party intervention, presenting a typology based on the roles a potential third party may aim at or actually fill.