* Explains developments in recent peacekeeping operations and politico-military environments * Bridges the gap between peace and conflict scholarship * Highlights new aspects of war studies Following over a decade of substantial and extensive American military involvement, peace operations have passed from a position of strategic irrelevance to one of strategic importance. provides a snapshot of the contemporary environment of peace operations, in terms of both war and intervention. It also answers two broad questions: 1) What are key characteristics of armed competitors in the current environment of peace operations, particularly in terms of their structure and organization, financing, access to military resources, and the tactical tools and methods applied by these movements? And 2) What are key recent developments in the dimensions and methods of intervention, particularly regarding the use of force, the adaptation of global militaries to peace operations and the emerging political, legal and economic components of intervention? allows readers from a range of domains—military, academic, humanitarian, political, and diplomatic—to understand the priorities and methods of different actors in today’s peace operations.