Challenges to Peace in a Multipolar World

The contemporary international system is undergoing a profound transformation, marked by the transition from post-Cold War unipolarity towards an increasingly fragmented and competitive multipolar order. The resurgence of great power rivalry, strategic shifts, economic and trade war, technological contestation, and regional conflicts has fundamentally altered the global peace and security landscape.Offering a critical and interdisciplinary examination of the changing dynamics of international peace and conflict, this book explores how major conflicts including the Russia–Ukraine War, Israel–Palestine conflict, Armenia–Azerbaijan dispute, Iran–Israel tensions, and the Kashmir issue reflect broader transformations in global power structures and the crisis of international norms. It also examines the growing significance of geo-economics, hybrid warfare, cyber insecurity, artificial intelligence, information warfare, climate change, resource scarcity, migration, and non-traditional security threats. Drawing on perspectives from international relations, peace and conflict studies, and global justice, the book engages with key theoretical approaches, including realism, great-power competition, new wars, and Johan Galtung’s distinction between negative and positive peace. It argues that sustainable peace cannot be achieved through military deterrence or conflict management alone, but requires political inclusion, social justice, human dignity, institutional reform, and meaningful international cooperation.This volume will appeal to scholars, policymakers, and foreign policy practitioners with interests in international relations, global politics, defence and strategic studies, peace and conflict studies, foreign policy, maritime studies, Chinese studies, and South Asian studies.