New Wars
Encyclopedia
New wars describe international or civil wars of low-intensity conflict that involve myriad transnational connections so that the distinctions between internal and external, aggression and repression, local and global are difficult to sustain. The term is an antonym of conventional warfare
whereupon conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics are no longer used between two or more states in open confrontation.
A key thinker in New Wars theory is Mary Kaldor
who explained how globalisation has made three changes to war; it is based on claiming identity not territory,
Guerrilla or terror tactics are used and international crime has changed how wars are funded. An example for the theory is the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Other supporters of the new wars theory are Herfried Münkler
from Germany, Martin van Creveld
from the Netherlands and Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
.
Conventional warfare
Conventional warfare is a form of warfare conducted byusing conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics between two or more states in open confrontation. The forces on each side are well-defined, and fight using weapons that primarily target the opposing army...
whereupon conventional military weapons and battlefield tactics are no longer used between two or more states in open confrontation.
A key thinker in New Wars theory is Mary Kaldor
Mary Kaldor
Mary Kaldor is a British academic, currently Professor of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, where she is also the Director of its Centre for the Study of Global Governance. She has been a key figure in the development of cosmopolitan democracy...
who explained how globalisation has made three changes to war; it is based on claiming identity not territory,
Guerrilla or terror tactics are used and international crime has changed how wars are funded. An example for the theory is the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Other supporters of the new wars theory are Herfried Münkler
Herfried Münkler
Herfried Münkler is Professor of Political Theory at Humboldt University in Berlin. Münkler is a regular commentator on global affairs in the German media and author of numerous books on the history of political ideas, on state building and on the theory of war, such as "Machiavelli" , "Gewalt und...
from Germany, Martin van Creveld
Martin van Creveld
Martin Levi van Creveld is an Israeli military historian and theorist.Van Creveld was born in the Netherlands in the city of Rotterdam, and has lived in Israel since shortly after his birth. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has...
from the Netherlands and Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou sometimes spelled Mohammad-Mahmoud Mohamedou is a Harvard University scholar and Mauritanian diplomat and academic, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from 2008 until 2009...
.
Further reading
- Mary Kaldor: New and Old Wars. Organized Violence in a Global Era. Stanford 1999, ISBN 978-0804756464
- Mary Kaldor: “Old Wars, Cold Wars, New Wars, and the War on Terror”, Lecture given to the Cold War Studies Centre, London School of Economics, February 2nd, 2005
- Ismail Küpeli: Die neuen Kriege - Einige Anmerkungen zu Kriegslegitimationen des 21. Jahrhunderts, in: ibd.: Europas "Neue Kriege", Moers 2007, ISBN 978-3-9810846-4-1 (critique on the idea of "new wars" in German, free download)
- Herfried Münkler: The New Wars. 2004, ISBN 978-0745633374