A cross-disciplinary account of how people in Western societies respond to the distant violence of the new world disorder, and the role of media coverage of war in forming people's responses. The author stresses the critical role of the media, in particular the roles of television and newspapers. He presents a set of arguments which challenge academic orthodoxies, arguing that the media are of growing importance because of the decline of other institutions in civil society, and the inability of parties, churches and even social movements to represent the victims of complex international crises. The book concentrates in particular on a multi-dimensional study of responses in one Western society, Britain, to the Gulf War of 1991 and its aftermath. It also argues that the civil wars in Iraq - the revolts of the Shias and Kurds against Saddam Hussein - were as important as the Gulf War itself.