Changing Nature of Warfare
Turriziani Carlotta Joy
Third take-home paper
Prof. Testoni
PL 209-2
Nov. 10, 2014
“ To what extent has the nature of war been changing since the late 19th century? What is the contribution in this process of the so-called ‘laws of war’? ”
In order to analyze the changes that the nature of war is having since the late 19th century, we must first define what we mean when we talk about war. War is a hard word to be defined. It’s not only any form of armed violence between groups of people, since we should first specifying what sorts of goals are involved and how much violence is required for an armed clash to be properly called “war”. 1
We should now define also the two different natures that a war can possibly have: the objective and the subjective one. “The objective nature of war includes those elements—such as violence, friction, chance, and uncertainty—that all wars have in common. Conflicts can range in kind from an all-out attack to a war of observation (peacekeeping), for instance, but each will have all of these elements present to one degree or another. By contrast, the subjective nature of war encompasses those elements— such as military forces, their doctrines, weapons, as well as the environments (land, sea, air, and danger) in which they fight—that make each war unique.”2
The nature of war, since the end of the late 19th century, has been changing because of many reasons: globalization, technological innovations …
In the past, Clausewitz said, “War is merely the continuation of policy by other means”3. With this statement, he has basically explained that the essence of war is political. War is a function of the political realm: it remains independent of technology and science, and every conflict is an extension of politics. Thus, the analysis of the effect of the globalization on war must start with a discussion of the effects of globalization on international politics.
Globalization is commonly associated with the revolution in information
Third take-home paper
Prof. Testoni
PL 209-2
Nov. 10, 2014
“ To what extent has the nature of war been changing since the late 19th century? What is the contribution in this process of the so-called ‘laws of war’? ”
In order to analyze the changes that the nature of war is having since the late 19th century, we must first define what we mean when we talk about war. War is a hard word to be defined. It’s not only any form of armed violence between groups of people, since we should first specifying what sorts of goals are involved and how much violence is required for an armed clash to be properly called “war”. 1
We should now define also the two different natures that a war can possibly have: the objective and the subjective one. “The objective nature of war includes those elements—such as violence, friction, chance, and uncertainty—that all wars have in common. Conflicts can range in kind from an all-out attack to a war of observation (peacekeeping), for instance, but each will have all of these elements present to one degree or another. By contrast, the subjective nature of war encompasses those elements— such as military forces, their doctrines, weapons, as well as the environments (land, sea, air, and danger) in which they fight—that make each war unique.”2
The nature of war, since the end of the late 19th century, has been changing because of many reasons: globalization, technological innovations …
In the past, Clausewitz said, “War is merely the continuation of policy by other means”3. With this statement, he has basically explained that the essence of war is political. War is a function of the political realm: it remains independent of technology and science, and every conflict is an extension of politics. Thus, the analysis of the effect of the globalization on war must start with a discussion of the effects of globalization on international politics.
Globalization is commonly associated with the revolution in information