Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, new long-lasting wars explode, with unprecedented cruelty and ferocity. These civil wars demonstrate how, within the international scenario, a progressive de-statalization of war is becoming the rule. There is a crisis of the State-monopoly of war. The border between the use of force and wealth acquisition processes is withering away; the increasing partnership between peace economies and civil war economies, also the distinction between internal and external sphere of States is lost. Moreover, the very military sphere becomes colonized by the imperatives of private economy. In the new wars, the use of military force becomes the first instrument of politics. Does this bring forth new possibilities for politics?