Introduction: exploring the utility of armed force in modern conflict

Abstract

What is the utility of force in modern conflict? This article introduce the overall puzzle of this special issue of Small Wars and Insurgencies. In doing so, it identifies some trends in the development of strategic thought since the end of the cold war. By elaborating on some of the paradoxes of modern military power and the use of force, it also provides a more detailed outline of the articles in this issue.

Keywords:

• military power
• utility of force

Notes

1. Smith, The Utility of Force.

2. Smith, ‘Thinking About the Utility of Force in War Amongst the People’, in John Andreas Olsen, ed., On New Wars, Oslo Files 4/2007, Oslo: Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, 2007, 28.

3. Gow, ‘The New Clausewitz?’, 1160.

4. Creveld, The Transformation of War.

5. Kaldor, New and Old Wars; Herman Münkler, Die Neuen Kriege, Rowohlt, 2002.

6. See, for example, McInnes, Spectator Sport War; Coker, Humane Warfare; Gray, Postmodern War.

7. See, for example, Duyvesteyn and Angstrom, Rethinking the Nature of War.

8. See, for example, Angstrom and Duyvesteyn, Understanding Victory and Defeat in Contemporary War.

9. Gow, ‘The New Clausewitz?’, 1161.