As you set out to read this book, you likely find yourself enrolled in any number of courses in the fields of international security, international relations, or perhaps foreign policy analysis or international organization. You might be intensively studying conflict processes, conflict resolution, or peace operations, or engaged in a more general inquiry of security, war, or political violence. Regardless of your specific intellectual concern, the goal of this book is to provide a comprehensive text dealing with multiple approaches to conflict management viewed in a contemporary light. In seeking to provide readers with a thorough and consistent baseline exploration of contemporary conflict management and its various translations, this book is structured around twin points of emphasis: the changing nature of conflict in the post-Cold War era, and the plethora of approaches to managing conflicts occurring in this changed environment. Whereas many courses and books dealing with these kinds of subjects have traditionally tilted toward the causes of conflict, the aim of this volume is to lend greater consideration to the management of conflict once it has occurred.