WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OLD WARS AND NEW WARS? DO YOU THINK NEW WARS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT FROM OLD WARS? STST1001 u72898782 Word Count: 2252
The term 'new wars' refers to the notion that violence in the twenty-first violence has changed in comparison to violence in the twentieth century and has been a largely disputed concept in both scholarly and policy literature. The term 'new wars' was coined by British academic, Mary Kaldor, which characterises war-fare in the post-Cold War era. An often- made criticism on Mary Kaldor's concept of new wars is in relation to the extent to which a distinction between new and old wars can be made. Arguments have been made that several of the characteristics of new wars have been recognised in old wars. Critics reason that features of new wars within weak states are found in traditional wars and that occurrences such as mass rape, banditry, forced population displacement, and brutalities committed against civilians have a record dating back centuries. In her article, In Defence of New Wars, Mary Kaldor asserts that "the term 'new' is a way to exclude 'old' assumptions about the nature of war" (2013, 3) and is about understanding the changing nature of organised violence. Further, amongst the discussion of new wars, some argue whether new wars can be classified as war at all. John Mueller contends in his book, The Remnants of War, that war is becoming obsolete and contemporary violence is of a more criminal nature and therefore cannot properly be categorised as war. To put it simply, he defines war as 'old war'. Mueller states, "most of what passes for warfare to-day is centrally characterised by the opportunistic and improvisatory clash of thugs, not by the programmed and/or primordial clash of civilisations" (2004, 115). However, Mary Kaldor argues that "new wars can be described as mixtures of war (organised violence for political ends), crime (organised violence for private ends) and human rights violations (violence against civilians)" (2013, 6). These criticisms raise the question of whether new wars and old wars are fundamentally different. This essay will highlight the differences between old wars and new wars in terms of goals, actors, modes of warfare, and war economics and will make the argument that the 'new wars' thesis concerns the shifting nature of conflict and, the advancement of a new type of understanding, interpretation and explanation of the interconnected features of such conflict. Old wars were predominantly fought for ideological and geo-political interests. Carl von Clausewitz, a military theorist and arguably one of the greatest proponents of modern war, defined war as "an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will" (1968, 5). Conventional warfare was started by a state's desires for power and the expansion of their ideology and 'will'. A war of ideas involves the clashing of opposing ideals and ideologies and is essentially initiated by the desire for power and influence (Echevarria 2008). The aim of was to gain access to the