The United States has been at war continuously since 2001. Whereas the ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reflected aspects of traditional warfare, the “war on terror” and the means for combatting it – including private security contractors, special operations forces, and new technologies such as armed drones – introduced many novel elements. Meanwhile, humanitarian justifications for war, invoked since the end of the Cold War in places such as former Yugoslavia, experienced continued degradation as the UN-authorized intervention in Libya turned into a war of regime change and Russia sought to justify its intervention in Ukraine on humanitarian grounds. These issues were addressed at a conference on Globalization and International Conflict held to explore elements of change and continuity in war during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This introduction offers a guide to the articles written on the basis of the conference presentations, pointing particularly to areas of overlap and disagreement between the authors.
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