A collection of essays about the many faces of violence during and after the Cold War. The main themes are war and peace, totalitarianism and nationalism. It concludes with a balance sheet of the 20th century and looks into elements of order and disorder in the current international system.

Building a bridge between political philosophy and the analysis of current affairs, as well as between the author's personal experience and the collective dramas of the twentieth century, Pierre Hassner stresses two major features of our time: the decline of interstate war as a realistic prospect, and the increase in domestic and transnational violence.