This new book addresses the key question of how NATO and three of its member states are configuring their policies and military doctrines in order to handle the new strategic environment.

This environment is increasingly dominated by 'new wars', more precisely civil wars within states, and peacekeeping as the strategy devised by outside actors for dealing with them. The book seeks to explain how this new strategic environment has been interpreted and how the new conflicts and peacekeeping have been fitted into 'defence' and 'war' - key concepts in the field of security studies.