Rethinking the Nature of War

Have globalization virulent ethnic differences and globally operatinginsurgents fundamentally changed the nature of war in the last decades?Interpretations of w... » 

Have globalization virulent ethnic differences and globally operatinginsurgents fundamentally changed the nature of war in the last decades?Interpretations of war as driven by politics and state rationale formulatedmost importantly by the nineteenth century practitioner Carl von Clausewitzhave received strong criticism. Political explanations have been said to fallshort in explaining conflicts in the Balkans Africa Asia and the attacks of11 September 2001 in the United States.This book aims to reevaluate these criticisms by not only carefullyscrutinizing Clausewitzs arguments and their applicability but also by acareful reading of the criticism itself. In doing so the contributions on thisbook present empirical evidence on the basis of several case studiesaddressing various aspects of modern war such as the actors conduct andpurposes of war.The book concludes that while the debate on the nature of war has far from runits course the interpretation of war as postulatedby Clausewitz is not asinapplicable as some have claimed. Furthermore the label a war receives suchas civil war does not necessarily say much about the way this war is fought.Civil wars are not always irregular or unconventional wars. Changes in theconduct of war have unmistakably occurred but change should not overshadow theimportant continuities that exist in the nature of war and warfare. «