The new Clausewitz? War, force, art and utility – Rupert Smith on 21st century strategy, operations and tactics in a comprehensive context

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

¹A burgeoning literature on ‘new wars’ emerged, of which, Martin Shaw's contributions are perhaps closest to the mark, in their attempt to integrate the markers and dynamics of contemporary conflict, although, in the end, despite the identification of some of the key trends, such as atrocity and the salience of diverse global publics, Shaw does not quite get to the strategic core of change, perhaps because he seems distracted by a desire to critique the West, rather than purely focus on the nature of contemporary warfare and the problems of prosecuting it successfully – see The New Western Way of War (Cambridge: Polity 2005) and War and Genocide (Cambridge: Polity 2003); the term ‘new wars’ was coined by Mary Kaldor (New and Old Wars, Cambridge: Polity 1999); other contributors to this genre include Chris Hables Gray Postmodern War: the New Politics of Conflicts (London: Routledge 1997) and Michael Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (London: Chatto 2000). However, the key flaw throughout the ‘new wars’ literature is a failure, despite strong work in other respects, to move beyond some of the epiphenomena of contemporary armed conflict, to treat, let alone really comprehend, the business of soldiers, which lies at the heart of warfare.

²Smith, Utility, ix.

³Carl von Clausewitz, On War trans. J.J. Graham, Introduction and Notes by Colonel F.N. Maude, CB (Late RE). Introduction to the New Edition by Jan Willem Honig (New York: Barnes and Noble 2004).

⁴Gen. Sir Michael Rose, Fighting for Peace: Bosnia, 1994 (London: Harvill 1998).

⁵Martin van Creveld, On Future War (aka The Transformation of War) (London: Brassey's 1991).

⁶Smith judges that, while breaking Mladic's sense of control was vital, it was the exploitation of that loss of control by Croatian and Bosnian ground forces in the late summer–early autumn of 1995 that was decisive in turning the military tide against the Bosnian Serbs. This is counter to my own judgement that the use of air power was the decisive factor: without it, Mladic's control could not have been broken and the Croatian and Bosnian forces would not have been able, then, to take advantage of that situation. See James Gow, The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: a Strategy of War Crimes (London: Hurst 2003), 192–8.

⁷Smith, Utility, 394ff.

⁸Smith, Utility, 397.

⁹Smith, Utility, 88.

¹⁰In this respect, US thinking on the ‘Long War’, as its reconfigured approach to both the Iraqi and worldwide insurgency it faced was labelled from early 2006. However, the extent to which the vast ship of US military affairs had been able to turn around in the waters of war remained decidedly disappointing and limited. The new approach, in particular, lacked any sense of how the media and images had become salient. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, US Army, ‘The Long War’, Lecture, King's College London, 15 June 2006. ‘Symposium: Shifting Securities Project', ESRC New Security Challenges Programme, ESRC Award RES-223-25-0063.

¹¹Wesley Clark, Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo and the Future of Combat (New York: Public Affairs 2001).

¹²Smith, Utility, 1.

¹³Christopher Dandeker and James Gow, ‘The Future of Peace Support Operations: Strategic Peacekeeping and Success’, Armed Forces and Society 23/3 (Spring 1997), 327–48.

¹⁴Smith, Utility, 226–7.

¹⁵Smith, Utility, 210.

¹⁶Smith, Utility, 243.

¹⁷Smith, Utility, 241.

¹⁸Smith, Utility, 277.

²¹Smith, Utility, 278.

¹⁹Ibid.

²⁰Smith, Utility, 277–8.

²²Smith, Utility, 306.

²³Smith, Utility, 303.

²⁴James Gow, Defending the West (Cambridge: Polity 2005), 31.

²⁵E.g., Creveld On Future War; Jan Willem Honig, ‘Strategy in a Post-Clausewitzian Setting’ in Gert de Nooy (ed.), The Clausewitzian Dictum and the Future of Western Military Strategy (The Hague: Kluwer 1997).

²⁶Smith, Utility, 289.

²⁷Smith, Utility, 391.

²⁸Milena Michalski and James Gow, War, Image, Legitimacy: Viewing Contemporary Conflict (London: Routledge 2007 forthcoming). Smith himself rejected this notion, initially at least, and perhaps surprisingly – Smith, Interview, Strand C, Shifting Securities Project, ESRC New Security Challenges Programme, ESRC Award RES-223-25-0063; that wider programme of research on the complex interrelationships of people, media and military practitioners in relation to contemporary security issues – www.mediatingsecurity.com

²⁹Smith, Utility, 379.

³⁰Philip Bobbitt The Shield of Achilles (London: Penguin 2003).

³¹Gow, Defending the West, 123–47.