The Ashgate research companion to war : origins and prevention / edited by Hall Gardner and Oleg Kobtzeff.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Preface; General introduction; polemology, Hall Gardner and Oleg Kobtzeff; Part I Alienation, Legitimacy, and the Roots of War: Alienation and the origins and prevention of war, Hall Gardner; The roots and evolution of conflict: from Cain to the present, Azar Gat; Gender and the causes, tactics and consequences of war, Debra L. DeLaet; Age of progress or 'age of extremes'?: the escalation of warfare in modern times and the nature of its mutation, Oleg Kobtzeff; The state as a cause of war: anarchist and autonomist critiques of war, Andrew Robinson; Majority rule - a cause of war?, Peter Emerson; The legitimacy of war - toward a new principle for intervention, with its application to the Iraq War of 2003, Troy Davis. Part II Major Wars in History: From innovative democracy to warfare state: ancient Athens as a model of hegemonic decline, Athina Karatzogianni; Origins of Arab-Israeli conflicts in the 'Greater Middle East', Marco Rimanelli; A 'time of troubles': war in an age of planetary upheaval, from the end of the Middle Ages to 1648, Oleg Kobtzeff; Napoleonic wars: art of war, diplomacy and imperialism, Marco Rimanelli; War and the sacred: Russian-Ottoman conflict, 1876-1878, Ilya Platov; The failure to prevent World War I , Hall Gardner; World War I in history, Anthony D'Agostino; Totalitarian times - total war, global war: the roots of World War II and the nature of the conflict, Oleg Kobtzeff. Part III Cold War and Beyond...: NATO as a war-preventive organization: Cold War vs. World War III, Marco Rimanelli; The Cold War and the media: lessons from America in Vietnam, Steven Ekovich; NATO as post-Cold War humanitarian and peacekeeping organization, Marco Rimanelli; NOT a clash of civilizations: the conflict in Kosovo revisited, Oleg Kobtzeff; Child soldiers: the pursuit of peace and justice for child combatants, Susan Hitchcock Perry; The instrumentalization of gender in war, Carol Mann; Wars and climate: the effects of climatic change on secu

This comprehensive volume brings us a much needed analysis of wars throughout the ages, their origins, their consequences, and their relationship to the present. A valuable understanding that is ideal for social scientists from a variety of backgrounds. Part I explicates differing theories as to the origins of war under the general concept of 'polemology'. Part II analyzes significant conflicts from the Peloponnesian wars to World War II. Part III examines the ramifications of Cold War and post-Cold War conflict. Part IV looks at long cycles of systemic conflict, and speculates, in part, whether another global war is theoretically possible, and if so, whether it can be averted