The Oxford Handbook of War is the definitive analysis of war in the twenty-first century. With over forty senior authors from academia, government and the armed forces world-wide the Handbook explores the history, theory, ethics and practice of war. The Handbook first considers the fundamental causes of war, before reflecting on the moral and legal aspects of war. Theories on the practice of war lead into an analysis of the strategic conduct of war and non Western ways of war. The heart of the Handbook is a compelling analysis of the military conduct of war which is juxtaposed with consideration of technology, economy, industry, and war. In conclusion the volume looks to the future of this apparently perennial feature of human interaction.

This Handbook is not just timely but an outstanding contribution to the understanding of war at the start of the twenty-first century. As such the Handbook considers war in the broadest sense at the end of one epoch and the beginning of another. * Bruno Racine, President of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and President of the Board of Directors of the Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique in Paris *
The incidence of war and its casualties have dramatically declined in the last thirty years. That, however, is not the perception of a public used to the dramas of 24/7 media coverage of what is still happening on the world's battlefields. Never has it been more timely for a volume like this to appear and to enlighten the global population to the changed and increasingly complex nature of modern warfare. * The Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG FRSE PC, former Secretary General of NATO and former Secretary of State for Defence in the UK *

Julian Lindley-French is a member of the Atlantic Council of the United States as well as Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) and Senior Associate Fellow of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. He is Head of the Commander's Initiative Group (CIG) for NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) in which he is leading efforts to operationalise the Comprehensive Approach, as well as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group in Washington. He was formerly a Course Director at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and European Co-Chair of the US-European Working Group on Stabilisation and Reconstruction Missions for CSIS and Project Leader for the Atlantic Council's Stratcon 2010 project on the NATO Strategic Concept. He is Eisenhower Professor of Defence Strategy at the Netherlands Defence Academy, and Special Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of Leiden. Dr Yves Boyer is Professor at Ecole polytechnique, the most prestigious French Grande Ecole, teaching "Geopolitics and Strategy". The Deputy Director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) in Paris, he is a former senior researcher at the French Institute for International Affairs (IFRI), at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS-London) and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar (Washington D.C.). He is also the vice-president of the board of the Comité d'Etude de Défense Nationale (Paris), a member of the editorial boards of the Annuaire Français de Relations Internationales, the Revue de Géoéconomie (Paris) and Questions Internationales (Paris).