The concept of integrated pest management (IPM) has been accepted and incorporated in public policies and regulations in the European Union and elsewhere, but a holistic science of IPM has not yet been developed. Hence, current IPM programs may often be considerably less efficient than the sum of separately applied individual crop protection actions. Thus, there is a clear need to formulate general principles for synergistically combining traditional and novel IPM actions to improve efforts to optimize plant protection solutions. This paper addresses this need by presenting a conceptual framework for a modern science of IPM. The framework may assist attempts to realize the full potential of IPM and reduce risks of deficiencies in the implementation of new policies and regulations. Integrated pest management is globally endorsed as the future paradigm for crop protection, but in practice it just means that several pest management elements are combined − not integrated. Different pest management elements interact with each other, having synergistic or antagonistic effects when used together. The emerging science of IPM systematically studies the compatibility and optimization of the involved elements. Most interactions within IPM involve effects of plant resistance on other pest management elements. By contrast, biological control is affected by almost all other elements.