ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to enhance our knowledge of connection between domestic conflicts and international relations. The study of civil wars, conflicts occurring within state borders, used to be understood as being entirely different from international conflicts, or wars between two or more nation-states. The book points out the increasingly complex dynamics of internal conflicts and it develops generalizable arguments about connection between internal conflicts and regional or international security questions. It contributes to the literature on new civil wars by emphasizing importance of domestic, regional and international political factors in explaining reasons why some conflicts escalate, why some have been resolved, and why other conflicts continue. The ultimate goal of the book is to use different approaches, lenses and examples to understand escalation of domestic conflicts. It finds the conflict excalation, or internationalization, is more likely in weak, illegitimate, and non-democratic states.
