The world’s cultures and their forms of creation, presentation, and preservation are deeply affected by globalization in ways that are inadequately documented and understood. The Cultures and Globalization Series is designed to fill this glaring gap in our knowledge, a gap that could ultimately become politically dangerous and economically damaging. Analyzing the relationship between globalization and cultures is the aim of the Series. In each volume, leading experts as well as young scholars will track cultural trends connected to globalization throughout the world, covering issues ranging from the role of cultural difference in politics and governance to the evolution of the cultural economy and the changing patterns of creativity and artistic expression. Each volume will also include an innovative presentation of newly developed ‘indicator suites’ on cultures and globalization that will be presented in a user-friendly form with a high graphics content to facilitate accessibility and understanding. The inaugural theme in 2007 will be ‘Conflicts and Tensions’: the cultural dimensions of conflict and the conflictual dimensions of culture.Like so many phenomena linked to globalization, conflicts over and within the cultural realms crystallize great anxieties and illusions, through misplaced assumptions, inadequate concepts, unwarranted simplifications and instrumental readings. The aim here is to marshal evidence from different disciplines and perspectives about the culture, conflict and globalization relationships in conceptually sensitive ways. Thus, in a broad and genuine sense, the Cultures and Globalization Series means not only to promote better understanding of contemporary cultural change but also to serve the cause of peace and security through informed, open and diversified debate.