Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World

Description

Today’s warfare has moved away from being an event between massed national populations and toward small numbers of combatants using high-tech weaponry. The editors of and contributors to the timely collection Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World show that this shift reflects changes in the technological, strategic, ideological, and ethical realms. The essays in this volume discuss: ·the waning connection between citizenship and soldiering;  ·the shift toward more reconstructive than destructive activities by militaries;  ·the ethics of irregular or asymmetrical warfare;  ·the role of novel techniques of identification in military settings;  ·the stress on precision associated with targeted killings and kidnappings;  ·the uses of the social sciences in contemporary warfare.  In his concluding remarks, David Jacobson explores the extent to which the contemporary transformation of warfare is a product of a shift in the character of the combatants themselves.  Contributors include: Ariel Colonomos, Roberto J. González, Travis R. Hall, Saskia Hooiveld, Rob Johnson, Colonel C. Anthony Pfaff, Ian Roxborough, and the editors Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Warfare without Warriors? Changes in Contemporary Warfare and the Demise of the Citizen-Soldier / John Torpey and Saskia Hooiveld 2. The Changing Character and Enduring Nature of War: The Collision of State and Substate Polities / Rob Johnson 3. Plus Ça Change: War and State Building / Ian Roxborough 4. A Crisis of Norms: Fighting Irregular Wars Well / Colonel C. Anthony Pfaff 5. Searching for Red and Blue in the Fog of Gray: The Development and Deployment of U.S. Military Biometrics in Iraq and Afghanistan / Travis R. Hall 6. Precision Warfare and the Case for Symmetry: Targeted Killings and Hostage Taking / Ariel Colonomos 7. Militarizing Ethnography: The Pentagon’s Use and Abuse of Culture / Roberto J. González Conclusion: Postnational Warfare / David Jacobson Contributors Index