Segurança e Defesa

The New Faces of Violence and War: Peace and Security Challenges, por Mariano Aguirre

The current challenges to peace and security are complex, unpredictable and related to fields that were commonly considered outside the State-oriented security concept. The wars are increasingly less about confrontations between states and more among non-State groups, political violence is assuming different aspects and the roots of war and violence are related to a broad series of factors. If war in the last 400 years were related to the construction of the State now they are related to the crisis and disintegration of some states along identity lines, particularly the ones that suffered the impact of neoliberal policies, internal corruption, and external economic and sometimes military interventions. This is one of the many challenges brought about by globalization, technological and scientific progress, that has shifted the conditions of war. Tracing the major trends in global conflict, forms and catalysers of violence within States and the role of inequalities to threats on security the present article makes a comprehensive case of the measures to be adopted for the EU in terms of external policies for the minimization of violence and conflict.