Description
Book SynopsisOver the last decade (and indeed ever since the Cold War), the rise of insurgents and non-state actors in war, and their readiness to use terror and other irregular methods of fighting, have led commentators to speak of ''new wars''. They have assumed that the ''old wars'' were waged solely between states, and were accordingly fought between comparable and ''symmetrical'' armed forces. Much of this commentary has lacked context or sophistication. It has been bounded by norms and theories more than the messiness of reality. Fed by the impact of the 9/11 attacks, it has privileged some wars and certain trends over others. Most obviously it has been historically unaware. But it has also failed to consider many of the other dimensions which help us to define what war is - legal, ethical, religious, and social. The Changing Character of War, the fruit of a five-year interdisciplinary programme at Oxford of the same name, draws together all these themes, in order to distinguish between what
Table of ContentsPART I: THE NEED FOR A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: WHAT HAS CHANGED?; PART II: THE PURPOSE OF WAR: WHY GO TO WAR?; PART III: THE CHANGING IDENTITIES OF COMBATANTS: WHO FIGHTS?; PART IV: THE CHANGING IDENTITIES OF NON-COMBATANTS; PART V: THE IDEAS WHICH ENABLE US TO UNDERSTAND WAR
