What he said...
...but with a caveat: we don't know for certain that state-on-state violence is in fact done and over with. And since states still have by far the greatest ability to marshal violence against Canada, any attempt to retool our military in a way that ignores the potential for conventional war would be unwise.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 11:41 a.m.
3 Comments:
"We need to ask whether the norms, laws,and mechanisms designed long ago to manage "regular warfare" between states are relevant in circumstances of continuous wars among the people. If we and our allies in the international community do not respond appropriately to these new circumstances, there is no doubt the difficulties we are dealing with today will repeat themselves tomorrow in other conflicts, for instance, in Darfur."
Very well said.
I disagree with the main thrust of the article. It suggests that the norm for warfare used to be nation states fighting against each other with clearly defined goals and that this only changed in the 1990's.
"Beginning about 1990 in the former Yugoslavia, we entered a new era of continuous warfare;"
This is historically inaccurate. With the exception of a brief period from the late 1700's to the 1990's warfare has been about conflicts between cultures or ideologies. These "continuous wars" only ended when one of the warring parties was destroyed or conquered (the vandals, the huns, the romans, the greeks, etc). It is only in the last couple hundred years that we've been willing to fight wars that end with both parties being intact (falkland islands, the first gulf war, etc).
In my opinion we are simply returning to the old method of waging war. Two cultures/ideologies enter the fight; one will be victorious the other will be conquered or destroyed.
But, Iron Oxide, I think the main thrust of the article is actually that we're trying to fight "new" wars with "old" rules. Whether they're truly new or old is beside the point: what's important is that there's a disconnect between how we're expected to fight and how we need to fight.
Post a Comment
<< Home