When does a war begin and when does it really end? Every war leaves traces, scars in the landscape, and people's resulting traumas are passed from one generation to the next. Post-war times can also become the years before a war. Over ten years, Swiss photographer Meinrad Schade has recorded the precarious life oscillating between war and peace in parts of Russia, Chechnya and Ingushetia, in Kazakhstan, the Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region, and in Ukraine. His portraits, still lifes, interiors, street scenes, and landscapes introduce the viewer to remote places and preliminary events. Schade's images show the long-term effects of old conflicts on people. This new book features a selection of some 160 images from Schade's "War Without War project". The essays tell the history of the countries and their conflicts, look at the decline and struggle for resurrection of the Soviet empire, and reflect on chances and restrictions of documentary photography. Text in English and German. AUTHORS: Nadine Olonetzky, born 1962, is a freelance cultural publicist and editor with Scheidegger & Spiess. She contributes regularlyto NZZ am Sonntag and to books and catalogues on photography, art, and art history. Fred Ritchin is a professor of photography and image technique at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and co-director of the NYU/Magnum Photography and Human Rights Educational Program. Mikhail Shishkin is a Russian-born writer and journalist. He lives and works in Switzerland since 1995. Daniel Wechlin is a political correspondent with Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung. He has been reporting from Russia and the former Soviet republics in Central Asian since 2011. 161 colour illustrations