Since the publication of the 2005 Human Security Report, scholars and policy-makers have debated the causes, interpretation and implications of what the report described as a global decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War. Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, this book analyses the causes and patterns of this decline.

1. Introduction: Diminishing Conflicts: learning from the Asia-Pacific Part 1: Conflict diminished? 2. Timor Leste: international intervention, gender and the dangers of negative peace 3. Maluku: anomie to reconciliation 4. Aceh: democratization and the politics of co-option 5. Solomon Islands: from uprising to intervention 6. Punjab: federalism, elections, suppression 7. Sri Lanka: the end of war and the continuation of struggle Part 2: Conflict deferred? 8. Bougainville: conflict deferred? 9. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT): diminishing violence or violent peace? 10. Eastern Burma: long wars without exhaustion 11. Fiji: the politics of conflict reduction Part 3: Conflict undiminished? 12. Southern Thailand: marginalization, injustice and the failure to govern 13. Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas: cause or symptom of national insecurity? Paul 14. Southern Philippines: the ongoing saga of Moro separatism 15. Kashmir: placating frustrated people 16. The Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea: conflict ignored 17. Conclusion: Lessons