When it comes to conflict resolution, is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure? Leading scholars lay out an analytical and methodological framework for evaluating this question, and case studies on global hotspots from Bosnia to Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and El Salvador (among others) put it to the test.

Mike Blakley is a principal research fellow at the Center for International Relations at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science Department. Michael Brown is associate professor and director of research for the National Security Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Renee de Nevers is a program officer in arms reduction and security in the Program on Global Security and Sustainability at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Richard Rosecrance is professor of political science and director of the Center for International Relations at the University of California, Los Angeles. Andrea Kathryn Talentino is a Sawyer Seminar Fellow at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University. Bradley Thayer is visiting assistant professor of government at Dartmouth College.