Does Interstate War Have A Future?

Interstate wars are part of a process of "bargaining" between and among nation-states that also involves voluntary and forced migrations, as well as the definition and re-drawing of boundaries. Europe has undergone such a thorough process of this kind in recent centuries that interstate wars may not occur there in the future. Territorial disputes and wars also seem unlikely in North America. Even Latin America may have enough states with definitive boundaries to make interstate wars unlikely. Africa, however, has mostly new states, with recently drawn and fragile boundaries. Though it was mostly peaceful from 1960 to 1990, since the end of the Cold War military conflicts with interstate aspects have become commonplace in Africa. Interstate wars have occurred periodically in the Middle East in recent decades and are likely to continue to occur. Asia's future may be like Europe's past. Independent, strong states interact intensively there, as European states did in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For all these reasons, conflicts classifiable as interstate wars between independent states are likely to occur, perhaps even with some regularity.