[Civil wars in the age of globalizationNew realities, new paradigms] There are three major theoretical trends offering an explanation for the persistence of wars following the end of the Cold War and the age of globalization. The most influential of them is probably the one that views the difference between wars today and those of the previous period as qualitative, its most credible representative being Mary Kaldor. According to these authors, today's wars are identity-based, their violence is turned mainly against population groups, and their economy is based on pillage, whereas those of yesterday were mainly ideological, seeking to win people to their cause and mobilizing resources to achieve their ends. These theories do not hold up to careful scrutiny. Yet the stakes are sizeable of one considers that, along with the other two theories and despite enormous differences, this trend constitutes a dominant paradigm (which is not, however, the single perspective) that exerts a decisive influence on the policies of the "international community".
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