THE TRANSFORMATION OF WAR

dc.creator	L.S. Mnyandu
dc.date	2012-02-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T20:09:57Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T20:09:57Z
dc.identifier	10.5787/28-2-220
dc.identifier	2224-0020
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/0898c451705544ea9fb84f1e3d4f4845
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/9409
dc.identifier.uri	https://doaj.org/article/0898c451705544ea9fb84f1e3d4f4845
dc.description	<p>"A ghost is stalking the corridors of general staffs and defence departments all over the 'developed' world - the fear of military impotence, even irrelevance. ...As new forms of armed conflict multiply and spread, they will cause the lines between public and private, government and people, military and civilian to become as blurred as they were before 1648. ...One very important way in which men can attain joy, freedom, happiness is (through) war." (Van Creveld, 1991: 1,226,227)</p> <p>These are the words that open and conclude this book whose stated objective is to provide a non-Clausewitzian perspective to 'modern' warfare (p ix). In the first two chapters, Van Creveld perceptively addresses the bankruptcy of nuclear weapons and strategy, the declining utility of conventional armed forces and the resurgence of low intensity conflict as well as the resounding political outcomes accrued through such conflicts. Acknowledging Karl von Clausewitz as an outstanding military theoretician, Van Creveld not only delineates the historical context in which Clausewitz's writings were most relevant, but goes on to evoke the works of Colmar von der Goltz (Das Volk in Waffen, 1883) and Erich Ludendorf (Der Totale Krieg, 1936) in order to clearly distinguish the concept of a trinitarian war in comparison to those of a total war and nontrinitarian war (p 35, 42, 45, 49). "Involving the surgical separation of the state, society and the military, the trinitarian war is compatible with the Clausewitzian prescription and primary notion of war as a continuation of politics" (p 63). While total war appears to be an extreme and perverted form of trinitarian war - it plays a vital role in as far as it nearly obliterated society, facilitated the rise of totalitarian governments and even precipitated the Second World War. This openened the flood gates for the resurgence of nontrinitarian conflict in which individuals and individual societies (not established armies acting on behalf of governments) take up arms in defense of their lives, property and freedom. Adopting the orthodox label of low intensity conflict (LIC) Van Creveld postulates that LIC's are set to become the way of war in the future for which modern armies are not prepared and to which the orthodox Clausewitzian view of warfare and strategy is inapplicable.</p>
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy)
dc.relation	http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/220
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2224-0020
dc.source	Scientia Militaria : South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 28, Iss 2 (2012)
dc.subject	a non-Clausewitzian perspective to 'modern' warfare
dc.subject	the bankruptcy of nuclear weapons and strategy
dc.subject	Karl von Clausewitz
dc.subject	the concept of a trinitarian war and a nontrinitarian war
dc.subject	low intensity conflict
dc.subject	the orthodox Clausewitzian view of warfare
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	DOAJ:Military Science
dc.subject	DOAJ:Technology and Engineering
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	DOAJ:Military Science
dc.subject	DOAJ:Technology and Engineering
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	DOAJ:Military Science
dc.subject	DOAJ:Technology and Engineering
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.title	THE TRANSFORMATION OF WAR
dc.type	Article