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Amry Kaldor

New and Old Wars : Organized Violence in a Global Era Paperback – January 1, 1999

by Mary Kaldor (Author)

4.4 64 ratings

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New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era
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Mary Kaldors "New and Old Wars" has fundamentally changed the way we understand contemporary war and conflict. In the context of globalization, this path-breaking book has shown that what we think of as war that is to say, war between states in which the aim is to inflict maximum violence is becoming an anachronism. In its place is a new type of organized violence or new wars, which could be described as a mixture of war, organized crime and massive violations of human rights. The actors are both global and local, public and private. The wars are fought for particularistic political goals using tactics of terror and destabilization that are theoretically outlawed by the rules of modern warfare. An informal criminalized economy is built into the functioning of the new wars.Kaldors analysis offers a basis for a cosmopolitan political response to these wars, in which the monopoly of legitimate organized violence is reconstructed on a transnational basis and international peacekeeping is reconceptualized as cosmopolitan law enforcement. This approach also has implications for the reconstruction of civil society, political institutions, and economic and social relations. This second edition has been fully revised and updated to deal with the implications of the new wars in the post 9-11 world.In a new chapter, Kaldor shows how old war thinking in Iraq has greatly exacerbated what is, in many ways, the archetypal new war with insurgency, chaos and the occupying forces lack of direction prescient of a different kind of conflict now emerging in the 21st Century. Like its predecessor, the second edition of "New and Old Wars" will be essential reading for students of international relations, politics and conflict studies as well as to all those interested in the changing nature and prospect of warfare.

Print length

216 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Stanford Univ Press
Publication date

January 1, 1999
ISBN-10

0745620671
ISBN-13

978-0745620671
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4.4 out of 5

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WAL

A Deeper Understanding of Low-Intensity Conflict and the War on Terror

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2015

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It’s not possible to make sense of the War on Terror and other so-called low intensity conflicts going on around the world without the analysis given in "New and Old Wars". It provides two key insights. First, the primary participants in these conflicts, with the exception of the Western powers, do not involve nation-states, and so the types of military and political resolution that the people of the USA are accustomed to are not possible, and second, civilians are the primary and intended victims and casualties of the fighting; civilian casualties are not just an unfortunate or collateral by-product. They can be combatants as well as victims: at what point does a jihadi sympathizer change from being an “innocent” civilian to a terrorist? Clearly, the current media treatment of “civilian” casualties needs refinement. The current non-differentiated approach is not especially helpful.

Insight into the ends, if they can be called that, of these conflicts is also clarified as essentially the exercise of power, or at least the attempt to, by those marginalized from the technologically advanced, capitalistic, liberal democracy global mainstream on the basis of ethnicity or religion. This can explain a lot, the role of terrorism and atrocity, for example, and carries the implication that a war may not the means to a political end, but rather the end in itself.

A question that the book leaves open is whether identity-based conflict and the resulting ethnic cleansing can be reversed once it is established. If not, Iraq and Syria as they were heretofore known are not recoverable.

"New and Old Wars" contains unsettling implications for the USA. Policy makers of both the left and right don’t seem to be able to grasp that they are not dealing with nation-states in these conflicts, with the result that the military and political approaches to them are in most cases exercises in futility. Another is whether it is possible that the growing disparity in wealth will create an environment in which “new wars” are endemic, and a constant supply of marginalized youth to fight them.

2 people found this helpful

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Thoughtworks

What a good, honest

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2015

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What a good, honest, conscientious voice... The ONLY bad thing about the book is that everything she is warning about is already on its way to being true and there is no sign anyone in the wealthy countries understands, or cares. But I am very glad I read this book. For one thing, it gives a very solid basic understanding of the Bosinian War.

One person found this helpful

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Catherine Cheng

A book filled with facts, questions, and musings.

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2016

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I bought this book for an international studies course as an Indiana University student and it broadened my awareness about the deep rifts among peoples, culture, and society as a whole.

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matias

Excelente

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2019

Excelente

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2014

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Its interesting and useful for my course study

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Dr. Larry Leibrock

Buy this book

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2016

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Excellent read. Buy this book

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Bob Gibson

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2015

Great support

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2015

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Great

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Legbamusic

A bad but influential book...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 30, 2015

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This book came immediately after the NATO intervention in the Balkans and its whole attempt is to put forward the thesis that there are new threats that require new forms of intervention in order to keep security. Although she comes from the development sector, her concerns echo those of the military industrial complex at the end of the Cold war: how do you keep this machinery running smooth after the USSR and the Cold war are gone? Well, we focus on the new global threats (drugs, crime, terror, etc.) and we treat them all militarily, so we can keep our jobs. The whole thesis of the sharp distinction between old and new wars is very poor, to say the least. It creates an artificial distinction which was never that clear, but which works well in order to give an academic background to what David Harvey would call the "new imperialism", that is, the thesis of humanitarian intervention in the 21st century. It also came as a more sophisticated view of the crass "economic theory of conflict" of Collier (another spectacular sham which has got to be fairly influential because it suits dominant discourses on global order). It is important to buy it only because it is a manual for the dominant discourses in relation to global security and international order.

One person found this helpful

Bob B

Valued priors

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2014

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Compare William Lind et al: The Changing Face of War - Into the Fourth Generation (Marine Corps Gazette October 1989), which I had previously read several years ago.
[...]

In several respects, I found the historical perspective and analysis of Lind more illuminating.

One person found this helpful

Mr. K. Donnellon

well put together and great graphics and clear

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2018

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informative, well put together and great graphics and clear charts

One person found this helpful

Kingy

Very impressed.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2018

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Very impressed.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2016

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This book was really helpful for my reasearch in my postgraduate studies.

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