War is now an important part of development discourse. Aid agencies have become involved in humanitarian assistance, conflict resolution and the social reconstruction of war-torn societies. This deeply thoughtful book explores the growing merger of development and security. Its author unravels the nature of the new wars - in Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia - and the response of the international community, in particular the new systems of global governance that are emerging as a result.

The breakdown of order is seen as symptomatic of long-term social processes: economic crisis, the social exclusion of wide strata of populations and internal conflict. Instead of the historic goals of modernity, development to reduce inequality, and a central role for the state, we have a neo-medieval situation in which overlapping and fragmented sovereignties confront an increasingly weakened central authority.

The consequences, as Duffield shows, are far-reaching. Development now focuses primarily on the shortcomings of structures within the South. Aid is privatized. A rising level of violence and misery are accepted as normal, and new forms of humanitarian aid intervention, far from solving the problem, accommodate and coexist with this instability and inequality. Pessimistic perhaps, but this book is profound in its insights and pregnant with policy implications.

Dr. Mark Duffield is is Professor of Development, Democratization and Conflict in the Institute for Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. Prior to that, he taught at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies in the School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham. Trained in both anthropology and political economy, his field experience includes four years as Oxfam's Country Representative in the Sudan during the latter half of the 1980s. His recent work has largely involved war-related emergencies and social reconstruction issues -- in which field he has carried out many research and consultancy exercises for UN agencies, donor governments and non-governmental organisations. He is the author of a number of books, including: War and Hunger: Rethinking International Responses to Complex Emergencies (coedited with Joanna Macrae and Anthony Zwi) (London: Zed Books, 1994) Without Troops and Tanks: Humanitarian Intervention in Eritrea and Ethiopia (with John Prendergast) (Trenton NJ: Red Sea Press, 1994) Black Radicalism and the Politics of Deindustrialisation: The Hidden History of Indian Foundry Workers (Aldershot: Gower Publishing Co. Ltd., 1988) Maiurno: Capitalism and Rural Life in Sudan (London: Ithaca Press, 1981)

'Mark Duffield's book is a "must" for anyone grappling with the contemporary nature of war and humanitarianism. Taking us beyond the stilted confines of international policy to the politics of modern violence, the argument exposes the way talk of "complex political emergencies" fails to grasp the fundamental characteristics of "emergent political complexes". Duffield lays bare the failings of aid policy in this regard' - Dr David Campbell, Professor of International Politics and Director, Centre for Transnational Studies, University of Newcastle

'What is needed is to move beyond the idea of war-as-breakdown towards a fundamental rethink about how local elites, ordinary people, and international governments are continuously adapting to war and to global economic change. This breathtaking tour-de-force from one of the leading thinkers in this field points the way forward' - David Keen, author of The Benefits of Famine