Offering a balanced introduction to contemporary security dilemmas, this book takes as its central theme the key but evolving role of power within the international system. Combining theory and practice, Sean Kay surveys the full range of conceptual frameworks for thinking about power and peace and examines a wide array of current flashpoints in the Middle East, Asia, and Eurasia. He also explores trade and technology, the militarization of space, the privatization of security, the use of sanctions, ethnic conflict, transnational crime, and terrorism. The book goes beyond common understandings of national defense to consider human security in the form of human rights, democracy, population, health, environment, and energy. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.