Rethinking the Nature of War

Jan Angstrom, Isabelle Duyvesteyn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780415354622
• eBook ISBN: 9781134257492
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Have globalization, virulent ethnic differences, and globally operating insurgents fundamentally changed the nature of war in the last decade?

Interpretations of war as driven by politics and state rationale, formulated most importantly by the 19th century practitioner Carl von Clausewitz, have received strong criticism. Political explanations have been said to fall short in explaining conflicts in the Balkans, Africa, Asia and the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States.This book re-evaluates these criticisms not only by scrutinising Clausewitz's arguments and their applicability, but also by a careful reading of the criticism itself. In doing so, it presents empirical evidence on the basis of several case studies, addressing various aspects of modern war, such as the actors, conduct and purposes of war.

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RETHINKING THE NATURE OF WAR

Edited by Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Jan Angstrom

Rethinking the Nature of War

Edited by

Isabelle Duyvesteyn

and

Jan Angstrom

First published 2005

by Frank Cass

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Frank Cass

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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.

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© 2005 Selection and editorial matter Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Jan Angstrom, individual chapters the contributors.

With the exception of Chapter 5

© British International Studies Association, published by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or eproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-00133-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0–415–35461–7 (hbk)

ISBN 0–415–35462–5 (pbk)

DOI: 10.4324/9780203001332

To the lyceum, which taught us well

Contents

• Preface and acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• 1 Introduction: Debating the nature of modern war JAN ANGSTROM
• 2 Strategy in an age of ‘low-intensity’ warfare: why Clausewitz is still more relevant than his critics M. L. R. SMITH
• 3 The concept of conventional war and armed conflict in collapsed states ISABELLE DUYVESTEYN
• 4 Warfare in civil wars STATHIS N. KALYVAS
• 5 A different kind of war? September 11 and the United States’ Afghan war COLIN MCINNES
• 6 New wars, old warfare? Comparing US tactics in Vietnam and Afghanistan KERSTI LARSDOTTER
• 7 The wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s: bringing the state back in BOB DE GRAAFF
• 8 International operations to contain violence in a complex emergency JOHN MACKINLAY
• 9 Theories of globalisation and sub-state conflict PAUL B. RICH
• 10 Elaborating the ‘new war’ thesis MARY KALDOR
• 11 Rethinking the nature of war: some conclusions ISABELLE DUYVESTEYN
• Index

Preface and Acknowledgements

This book is the product of two panel discussions during the British International Studies Association Conference, which was held in December 2002 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The title of the panel sessions was ‘The Military Theory of Low Intensity Conflict’. The editors of the book were the chief organisers of the sessions and had invited several experts to contribute in the form of a discussion paper. Several other contributions have been added, based on material presented in other settings.

The book provides a new contribution to the debate about the nature of war that has been conducted since the early 1990s. This debate centres on the question whether the nature of war has fundamentally changed during the past decade and a half. The book not only brings together several of the most important contributors to the debate but seeks to move the debate on. Important fundamental principles underlying the claims made in the ‘new war’ debate are questioned and an opportunity provided for some proponents of the new war thesis to respond to this criticism. Since the new war debate has widely denounced the applicability of the ideas of Carl von Clausewitz, considered by many to be the founding father of the discipline of strategic studies, his writings are carefully scrutinised in the book. Several contributions try to swing the debate back in the direction of Clausewitz and point to important aspects that indicate his continued relevance for understanding the nature of war.

Acknowledgements

The editors, Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Jan Angstrom, would like to thank the participants at the BISA conference sessions, the editorial board at the Department of War Studies, the Swedish National Defence College (which at one stage reviewed the chapters), and the anonymous reviewers at Frank Cass for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the chapters. Several, but not all, of the chapters were published by the Swedish National Defence College in the volume The Nature of Modern War: Clausewitz and his Critics Revisited (2003) for the benefit of the staff college curriculum. Several of the contributions that were included in that publication have been further developed and revised for the present book.

The editors would also like to express their gratitude to Andrew Humphrys, senior book editor at Frank Cass/Taylor and Francis for his encouragement. They are also grateful to the Swedish National Defence College for much appreciated assistance in realising the publication of this book. Cambridge University Press has kindly granted permission to reprint in this book the chapter by Colin McInnes.

A special word of thanks is extended to all the contributors in the present volume; without them and their stimulating and thought-provoking ideas there would be no book.

Finally we are grateful to our families, and the new generation that came along during the preparation of the book, for being there – even when sometimes we were not.

Isabelle Duyvesteyn

Jan Angstrom

May 2004

Notes on Contributors

Jan Angs...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface and acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• 1 Introduction: Debating the nature of modern war—JAN ANGSTROM
• 2 Strategy in an age of ‘low-intensity’ warfare: why Clausewitz is still more relevant than his critics—M. L. R. SMITH
• 3 The concept of conventional war and armed conflict in collapsed states—ISABELLE DUYVESTEYN
• 4 Warfare in civil wars—STATHIS N. KALYVAS
• 5 A different kind of war? September 11 and the United States’ Afghan war—COLIN MCINNES
• 6 New wars, old warfare? Comparing US tactics in Vietnam and Afghanistan—KERSTI LARSDOTTER
• 7 The wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s: bringing the state back in—BOB DE GRAAFF
• 8 International operations to contain violence in a complex emergency—JOHN MACKINLAY
• 9 Theories of globalisation and sub-state conflict—PAUL B. RICH
• 10 Elaborating the ‘new war’ thesis—MARY KALDOR
• 11 Rethinking the nature of war: some conclusions—ISABELLE DUYVESTEYN
• Index