ABSTRACT
As we approach the millennium, it is easy to suppose that the world is a more peaceful and prosperous place than at any previous century’s end. Such thoughts must have occurred in the late 1890s since large-scale war had not been seen since 1815. The second Industrial Revolution offered promises of bountiful material goods with incomes and leisure to match for the people of Europe and North America. Yet, within a quarter of a century, the world plunged into the most destructive conflict ever (over 40 million military and civilian deaths in two world wars). The expectations of stable peace may now be more realistic for residents of the richest countries but they seem as remote for much of the world as they did in 1895. The aim of this chapter is to describe and explain the current distribution of these persistent conflicts and to examine the prospects for a diffusion of peace to all parts of the world system. To accomplish that, we need first to see how conflict has changed over the course of the past half-century and to identify the various contemporary types of conflicts. Then, we can turn to global institutions and analyse their prospects of success.
