In an increasingly complex post-Cold War world system, scholars interested in conflict and conflict resolution must consider a wider collection of variables in drawing conclusions about important security issues. This compendium features 13 original essays that explore the importance of culture and identity with respect to civil-military relations, national security, and nation building. Contributors reflect upon both theoretical and substantive issues and draw from case studies representing different regions of the world.

The work begins with two articles offering theoretical and cross-cultural treatment of conflict and conflict resolution. Next, authors include ten case studies that explore the re-emergence of identity as a focal ingredient in determining national security doctrine. Case studies range from China to Southern Europe to Liberia to Brazil. A third section concentrates on the role of nationalism.

CONSTANTINE P. DANOPOULOS teaches Political Science at San Jose State University. He has written or edited ten books, numerous articles, and scores of book chapters. His publications deal with civil-military relations, national security, poverty, and the environment. He served as election observer in Bosnia in 1996 and is on the editorial board of Armed Forces and Society, The Journal of Political and Military Sociology, and Mediterranean Quarterly.

DHIRENDRA VAJPEYI is Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. He has authored, co-authored, and edited 15 books, including Environmental Politics in the Third World (Greenwood, 1995), Local Governments and Politics, Modernizing China, Indira Ghandi's India, Water Resource Management: A Comparative Perspective, Deforestation, Environment and Sustainable Development, and Local Democracy and Politics in South Asia.

AMIR BAR-OR teaches in the History Department at Ben-Gurion University and in the Political Science Department at Hebrew University. He is author of numerous articles and book chapters in both English and Hebrew.