The primary focus of Morgan (political science, U. of California at Irvine) in this book is to examine how international political actors pursue security by attempting to reduce the threat, incidence, and consequences of war. He discusses the strategies formulated by scholars, government officials, and military officers to avoid war within the international framework, including distribution of power, deterrence, collective security, and multilateralist management, as well as such tactical issues as negotiation and mediation, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, and peacebuilding. These are assessed in terms of a three-level framework of security: physical safety from harm at the level of the international system, the level of governments, and the level of societies. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)