Barry Buzan is Professor of International Relations at the LSE.

Part I. Introduction: Developing a Regional Approach to Global Security: 1. Theories and histories about the structure of contemporary international security; 2. Levels: distinguishing the regional from the global; 3. Security complexes: a theory of regional security; Part II. Asia: 4. South Asia: inching towards internal and external transformation; 5. Northeast and southeast Asian security complexes during the Cold War; 6. The 1990s and beyond: an emergent east Asian complex; Conclusion; Part III. The Middle East and Africa: Introduction; 7. The Middle East: a perennial conflict formation; 8. Sub-saharan Africa: security dynamics in a setting of weak and failed states; Conclusions; Part IV. The Americas: 9. North America: the sole superpower and its surroundings; 10. South America: an under-conflictual anomaly?; Conclusion: scenarios for the RSCs of the Americas; Part V. The Europes: Introduction: 11. EU-Europe: the European Union and its 'near abroad'; 12. The Balkans and Turkey; 13. The post-Soviet space: a regional security complex around Russia; Conclusion: scenarios for the European supercomplex; Part VI. Conclusions: 14. Regions and powers: summing up and looking ahead; 15. Reflections on conceptualising international security.