This chapter briefly analyses four general characteristics of today’s violent conflicts and draws out implications for international support to peace processes. There has been a shift in the nature, frequency, effects and implications of violent conflict and organised violence in the 21st century. Today conflict is relatively simple and cheap to initiate and maintain because of easy global access to finance and weapons, and local access to recruits; it has significant local, regional and global costs; it features a fusion of criminal, political, terrorist and commercial interests, and often recurs. The implications for international support to peace processes include the need to understand both the global and local drivers of conflict, and to make sure that peace agreements contain provisions to reduce access to the resources that fuel conflicts. Peace agreements should place more emphasis on breaking the structures for violence than conventional efforts, including attention to transnational organised crime, rebuilding community conflict resolution mechanisms, educational efforts to reduce the culture of violence and reducing political/commercial incentives for organised violence. Peace support efforts also need a strong focus on restoring social capital. On a positive note, the chapter finds that the international toolkit for dealing with and preventing violent conflict is becoming more successful and sophisticated, though more can be done.