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Synopsis Introduction to this edition of the Yearbook, SIPRI’s Director, Alyson J.K. Bailes, describes the main trends following the end of the East-West confrontation and reflects on the responses tot eh challenges by the main international actors, especially the United States. She also address the shift of emphasis since 1990 from arms control to security building in international affairs, including the changing role of NATO and the expansion of the European Union’s security agenda. This edition of the Yearbook illustrates the change from strict peacekeeping operations under UN mandate to the variety of types of peace mission executed by an increasingly wide array of international organizations and demonstrates the necessity of adjusting the means of peace-building to new realities. The chapters on the SIPRI speciality of Military spending and armaments are unique and indispensable expressions of SIPRI’s traditional and leading role in these contexts.