Decades Of Rising Prosperity And Increasing Interdependence Between States Have Significantly Diminished The Chance Of Direct Conflict. But New Security Challenges Now Threaten To Undermine This Trend. The Hcss Strategic Monitor 2014 Explores Four Such Challenges To Our Global Security Environment: Assertiveness Of China And Russia, The Rise Of ‘pivot States’, Instability In The Mena Region, And The Changing Role Of Non-state Actors In Security Issues.