Abstract
Wars of the past century or so address economic and political conflicts and, increasingly, ethnic and religious conflicts. The scope of war seems to be decreasing from a level of “macro‐war”) to a level “micro‐war,” as terrorism and drone attacks replace massive civilian deaths and warriors' deaths in conventional war. Drone attacks are “proactive” by promoting (so far) policy objectives of governments, while terrorism seems more commonly to be “reactive” against economic and political effects of the world economic order culminating in globalization. At the basis of this change are the structural realities of the ending of the Cold War, the downsides of globalization, social–psychological realities of the anger that fuels “conflict structures,” and yearnings for community. Cross‐cutting all these forces and structures is the growing appeal and influence of nonviolence as an alternative method for resolving world conflicts.