Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide: The Twentieth-Century Experience Book

Holsti's book is seeking to address not only why wars might occur, but also when, where and over what issues. This study examines three areas of pronounced neglect. Firstly, what are the issues that initially generate international conflict? What do men fight about? Secondly, what is the meaning of war to those who resort to it? Thirdly, in what ways do the arrangements of peace serve as a source of future international conflict? He argues that most studies completely ignore the issues in whose name war is waged, and asserts that should we ignore this we will fail to understand the conflicts in question.

Additionally, he looks at the "meaning of war", or how policy-makers conceptualize war. He notes most wars end with formal negotiations leading to peace; they reaffirm international norms and conventions. The great multilateral peace conferences were attempts to build new international orders, and succeeded or failed to different extents. These new orders included; the definitions of norms regarding the use of force; systems of governance for the society of states; conflict-resolving mechanisms and procedures; the resolution of war-producing issues; specific terms of settlement that will preclude wars of revenge; and some consideration over types of issues that might cause conflict in the future. Holsti then provides an overview of conflict from the Westphalian peace of 1648, until the end of the Cold War. He concludes that different orders were more or less successful based on how the were able to prevent hegemony, prevent transformation of the system, or prevent total war. He argues they failed due to their inability to prepare for transformation of the order (and the resulting wars), as they were backward looking.