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Clausewitz and the “New Wars” Scholars

2010; United States Army War College; Volume: 40; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.55540/0031-1723.2515

0031-1723

Bart Schuurman,

International Relations and Foreign Policy

S ince the Second World War, western armed forces have been most suc- cessful against opponents whose weapons, methods of organization, and ways of thinking closely resembled their own.Conflicts such as Israel's Six-Day War (1967) and the first Gulf War (1991) exemplified western militaries' excellence at defeating those adversaries who closely matched their own capabilities.The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s seemed to underline the West's military, economic, and ideological dominance.Yet even as the Berlin Wall fell, new threats were emerging.As western hopes of cashing in on the peace dividend were dashed in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans, academics and military professionals alike sought to explain how the world's most powerful militaries failed to defeat ragtag militias armed with the most basic of weapons.Many observers concluded that the nature of war had changed and that western armed forces had yet to make the necessary adaptations to the new paradigm. .The "new wars" school of thought has contributed significantly to understanding why conventional military superiority has limited value in civil wars or counterinsurgencies.Victory in such conflicts no longer rests on the ability to inflict massive destruction but on the ability to wrestle popular support away from one's opponents, isolating the insurgent or the terrorist from the things he needs most.New wars theorists have shown that western armed forces have to decisively alter the way in which they think about and prepare for armed conflict.Unfortunately, some of these theorists have also attempted to fundamentally change the way we think about war in general.This approach has led to several well-entrenched misunderstandings regarding war's fundamental characteristics and the relationship between contemporary and historical conflicts.This article will shed some light on these misunderstandings and show the faulty reasoning upon which they are based.By doing so, the author hopes to make a contribution to the development of a more nu-