Introduction: the challenge of political economy of war and peace (especially in a time of war)

Over the last decade, there has been a rapid deterioration in the state of global geopolitics. It is almost as if a new Cold War has begun in the blink of an eye. The emergent Cold War is an enormously significant development that warrants urgent critical investigation. If unreversed, it promises to cast a dark shadow over the rest of the twenty-first century, paralleling the Cold War of the twentieth century. It threatens massive loss of societal well-being in the form of death and destruction from proxy conflicts, resources directed to military rather than civilian uses, and induced changes in the political character of society that may diminish freedom. The worst-case scenario would involve nuclear war.