A much-needed assessment of a changed world, Resource Wars is a compelling look at warfare in an era of rampant globalisation and intense economic competition. The political divisions of the Cold War, Klare asserts, have given way to a global scramble for oil, natural gas, minerals, and water. And as armies throughout the world define resource security as a primary objective, widespread instability is bound to follow, especially in those areas where competition for essential materials overlaps with long-standing territorial and religious disputes .