Military power is now the main vehicle for regime change, the US army has been used on more than 30 different occasions in the post-Cold War world compared with only 10 during the Cold War era.

Andrew Williams provides a detailed study on liberal thinking over the last century about how wars should be ended, using a vast range of historical archival material from diplomatic, other official and personal papers and placing his study within the debates that have emerged in political theory. He examines the main strategies used at the end and in the aftermath of wars by liberal states to consolidate their liberal gains and to prevent the re-occurrence of wars with those states they have fought. He also explores how various strategies: revenge; restitution; reparation; restraint; retribution; reconciliation; and reconstruction, have been used by liberal states not only to defeat their enemies but also transform them.

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers studying war, conflict, liberalism and international relations.