This paper seeks to identify and chart the global dimensions of the political conflict and civil war in Sri Lanka. The global dimensions are visualised in terms of the ways in which the dynamic of the conflict has been embedded within two parallel and closely inter-dependent trajectories relating to the global economy and global politics. The conflict, which has taken various forms since the inception of the separatist movement in the early 1970s, spans a number of distinct historical phases that straddle important external political, economic and cultural changes, including the end of the cold war, the rise of a global liberal economic order, and the effects of the emerging global "war on terrorism" - all of which are playing an important role in the dynamics of the conflict. In the face of the extended stalemate that has characterised the internal political and military dynamics of the conflict, this paper argues that the politics of the war/peace process can be better understood by situating them within these larger historical and global transformations.
