Deployed Soldiers and Social Science Academics
(Part 5 of 5)
edited by Rob W. Kurz, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS
Small Wars Journal
This is the fifth installment of a five-part series. Each article was co-authored by one Army soldier/civilian and one university professor/academic as part of a joint research project. This project and product responds to the Army's objectives regarding the integration of cultural social sciences into its training and operations.
Some Concluding Remarks on a New Era in Warfare
by Dr. Felix Moos
Some Concluding Remarks on a New Era in Warfare (Full PDF Article)
Like death and taxes, warfare has become a fact of life in the 21st Century, ranging from 15 major wars at the end of 2003 (the United Nations defines "major wars" as conflicts inflicting 1,000 battlefields deaths per year) to insurgencies in India (Naxalite Uprising since 1967), Peru (Shining Path, since 1970s) and Nepal (Maoists, since 1996). Although some have argued that the nature of war has not changed (Hew Strachan, Oxford Today, 2007), this is not necessarily so. Warfare has indeed evolved to become primarily asymmetric. What has stayed true however, is that war, as Clausewitz noted long ago, nevertheless remains "a serious means to a serious end. It is a political act. It always arises from political conditions and is called forth by political motive" (quoted in Anatol Rapoport's 1968 Clausewitz on War). This is certainly as true in India, Nepal and Peru as it is for the ongoing conflicts engaging the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clausewitz thought that no war should happen if "people acted wisely." However, how often in real life do 'the people' act wisely? Thus, (traditional) war shouldn't break out suddenly, but asymmetric conflict apparently does.
Some Concluding Remarks on a New Era in Warfare (Full PDF Article)
