Introduction -- Europe : the lost peace. Peace ; The blunder ; From Yeltsin to Putin ; The end of peace ; The new/old Europe -- East Asia : the commercial peace. Peace ; China's singularity ; Chinese revisionism ; The Korean conundrum ; The new/old Asia -- The Middle East : the hegemonic truce. Truce ; Iran ; The bomb ; The Arab Spring ; The new/old Middle East -- Peace regained? Accident or precedent? ; Perpetual peace? ; Universal democracy?

"The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth examines that singularly peaceful quarter century. Its initial three chapters describe how and why peace came to be established in three important parts of the world: Europe (Chapter 1), where it was most firmly embedded; East Asia (Chapter 2), which was more peaceful than at any other time in its modern history; and the Middle East (Chapter 3), the least peaceful of the three regions during those 25 years. These chapters also describe and explain how and why the unprecedentedly peaceful conditions in each of the three regions came to an end. The fourth and final chapter explores the prospects for the revival of peace in the future"--