Ours is an age of great upheaval where change sometimes appears to be the only constant. Three of the most important forces driving such change are globalization, regionalization and democratization. This substantial work makes a concerted attempt to understand these forces, and to show how they impact on the vitally important question of global security. The volume brings together a wide range of scholars who hold diverse views, and who collectively make a very significant contribution to current discourses within international relations and contemporary geopolitics. Such is the book's breadth that it covers every region of the world, addressing in turn security problems in the USA, Latin America, South Asia, South East Asia, Europe, Russia and environs, the Middle East, and Africa. Each discourse receives substantial coverage: from economics and politics to religion, religious fundamentalism and human rights. "Challenges to Global Security" offers one of the richest comparative volumes yet to be published on the subject, and will have strong appeal to students, scholars and policymakers in the fields of international relations, ethics, and politics.

Hussein Solomon is Senior Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of the Free State (South Africa).