This issue of EPSJ opens with a symposium consisting of six articles on the organization of force in the modern world. The first three deal with the issue of the induction of youth into a state's armed service, either by conscription or by joining a volunteer, market-wage paid force. They are written by Panu Poutvaara and Andreas Wagener, Julide Yildirim and Bulent Erdinc, and Curtis Simon and John Warner, respectively. The other three articles by Antonio Giustozzi, Herbert Wulf, and Loretta Napoleoni, respectively, concern various aspects of the increasing trend toward privatization and internationalization of violent conflict, including how post-9/11 terrorist organizations finance themselves. In this issue, we also present three excellent overview articles. The first, by Keith Hartley, surveys accomplishments and challenges of research in defense economics, the second, by Vasily Zatsepin, discusses recent developments in Russian military expenditure, and the third, by Fernanda Llusa and Jose Tavares, provides a very well-done, succinct summary of the academic literature on the economics of terrorism.