Internal security crises, from environmental disaster, extreme poverty and deprivation, armed conflicts, or ethnic or religious conflict, provide sites of opportunity for those seeking to internationalize conflicts. Domestic conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia have started as internal problems, but have taken on regional and international dimensions as parties to the conflict within the country and sympathetic external forces have joined forces with each other for mutual gain. This book examines the international dimension to internal conflicts and asks: under what conditions do domestic conflicts become opportunities for regional or global actors to become involved? Why have some countries been able to successfully deal with this problem while others have not? Who are the actors who seek to internationalize conflicts? Why and with what means do they become involved and how do their agendas get internalized/localized? Cases include: the separatist movements in the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Aceh (Indonesia); and the civil wars in Rwanda/Congo, and Sierra Leone/Liberia, Lebanon, and Iraq. This book finds that a combination of greater democratization internally, coupled with constructive outside mediation efforts, can produce conditions necessary to prevent conflicts from escalating or diffusing, and can facilitate peace-building. Several chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Asian Security.

The last decade has seen an upsurge in violent internal conflicts in southern Thailand, southern Philippines, Sri Lanka, and a number of regions in Indonesia and the Pacific. Like terrorism and nuclear proliferation, violent internal conflicts are increasingly being seen as a global security issue.

Civil wars and internal conflicts pose the greatest threat to international peace and security in the twenty-first century. Nowhere is this problem more acute than in East Asia and the Pacific, which has far more of its share of such conflicts. Unraveling Internal Conflicts in East Asia and the Pacific: Incidence, Consequences, and Resolution, edited by Jacob Bercovitch and Karl DeRouen, Jr., is a book of originally commissioned essays on civil wars which provide a compelling area of inquiry. Many of the Asia-Pacific region's wars are very long (such as in Myanmar), some tend to recur (also in Myanmar); some involve religion (Philippines, Thailand), and some (Aceh, Bougainville, East Timor) of the longest have ended in the last few years. In short, the region presents a variety of interesting dynamics that merit close attention in one volume.

In a new approach to conflict management and subsequent resolution, instead of focusing on the causes of the conflicts alone, Centre for Security Analysis (CSA) explored the consequences of the protracted conflicts Northeast of India, Jammu and Kashmir, Naxalism, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka to examine the way consequences undermine the states' efforts to bring stability, development and peace in the region. Six conflict specific studies done in the four countries established the need to analyse three major issues in greater detail ethnic/cultural identity, political management and economic factors. CSA engaged experts from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar to analyse as to how and what role the identity factor played out in each of the four countries and how their respective governments tried to politically manage the conflict and the consequences.

Neglect of socio- economic needs, inequality and injustice in Nepali society attributed to the genesis of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. In early 1990, a mass upsurge Jana Andolan paved way for multi party of governance in Nepal. The opening up of the polity increased the awareness of inequality which helped Maoist insurgency to grow dramatically. However, in November 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached between the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-UML) and other main stream political parties. Monarchy was abolished. Election to the Constituent Assembly was held and a coalition government was been put in place. Inadequate steps to address the ethnic, economic and political aspirations of multi- ethnic groups have caused further unrest and created conditions for newer conflicts. Nepal shares border with India particularly with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, there is free movement across the borders. This facilitates movement of mafia groups, drug trafficking and political activities. Control of cross border activities remains difficult and led to serious cross border implications.

Contributed articles.

Internal conflicts threaten many countries and regions globally. The first part of this book examines the sources of internal conflicts and the ways these may affect neighbouring states and the international community. The second part covers specific problems, policy instruments and key actors.

Violence, war and internal conflicts have assumed a new intensity with the decline of the Cold War. There are over 32 civil wars going on today. Our world may well witness over 100 million refugees in the year 2000 as a direct result of internal wars. This volume consists of case studies and theory-oriented papers dealing with Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Middle East. Taken together, they spell out implications of wide general interest, providing a comparative basis for a systematic approach to conflict transformation.

Internal conflicts have replaced interstate wars in the 21st century. The scale and intensities of these conflicts have widened. Many of these conflicts are protracted and intractable resulting in security, economic and political implications not only within the country but also in neighborhood resulting in internationalization of these conflicts. In many cases the consequences have turned into the causes of continuing conflicts. These developments have made the resolution of internal conflicts complex and stretched the capacities of the states affected by them. As the states face internal conflicts, they are inclined to depend on the armed forces to curb these conflicts followed by a slew of other approaches, viz, development & economic and political. This volume comprises of papers written by a former governor and retired armed forces officials from India and Nepal who had vast experience in handling these conflicts. The observations and views put forward by them provide valuable insight for policy makers, academia and researchers.

This insightful book debates whether conflict within states has emerged as the Achilles Heel of the international community. It covers a wide-range of issues including the roots of internal conflict, small arms supplies, intervention, human rights and international humanitarian law, refugees and post-conflict reconstruction. Internal Conflict and the International Community provides supplementary reading for third level undergraduates, post-graduates and scholars of international relations, comparative politics, development studies, international law and security and defence studies.