Considerable progress has been made in understanding the underlying mechanisms driving the long-wave behaviour of the world socioeconomic development. A controversial mechanism discussed is the close relationship between K-waves and the outbreak of majors wars. Social scientists and politicians are well acquainted with the fact that chance events have been responsible for the outbreak of wars and their course and outcome. Two main trends are now acknowledged: the increasing recognition of the existence of some cyclical patterns of warfare involving the core of the world system, and a shift toward newly evolving patterns involving non-state actors and asymmetric warfare. We may tentatively agree that wars are not merely the result of blind social and political forces. In Part I, the reader will find a mix of contributions dealing with new visions or revisions of the concept of long waves considered from very different perspectives related to their unfolding. Those contributions discussing objectively the issue of K-waves and their relation with military conflicts, following old and/or new conceptualizations of the phenomenon, were selected to form the book's Part II.
Finally, those contributions with strong emphasis on the analysis of future scenarios, related or not related with warfare and/or world security compose the body of the Part III.