Book excerpt: Markets are the most efficient means yet discovered of allocating society's scarce resources. Unfortunately, many believe that market forces must inevitably conflict with social goals. So it is important to remind ourselves that market forces and self-interest can fulfil social, as well as private, aspirations. This book introduces a radical new financial instrument, Conflict Reduction Bonds, intended to channel the market's incentives and efficiencies into achieving what is perhaps our most urgent and yet remote social objective: the ending for all time of violent political conflict.