John Mueller, over at Ohio State University has a wonderful paper about the current phenomenon regarding the demise of war. He discusses the issue in detail, but being a political scientist (and student of Fred Astaire choreography), he doesn't dwell long on the whole aspect of enconomic ties being a significant depressant to the desire for war. Regardless, the paper is a good, and heartening read. Especially in light of recent events.
Mueller is also the author of the False Sense of Insecurity paper that has been making the rounds of late. You can download many of his papers, and even a couple of his books off of his OSU web page.