War Theory

Priestly Power and Probity on the Battlefield: Examining the Politico-Religious Origins of the Just War Doctrine

by David Drissel

Review of Michael L. Gross's: Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict.

by Jacob Held

Follow the link to find it on-line in Philosophy in Review

Review of Michael L. Gross's: Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of... more Review of Michael L. Gross's: Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict.

The Haganah and SOE: Allies and Enemies - Irregular Warfare & Politics in Mandatory Palestine - Given at SMH 2012

by Jacob Stoil

An American Perspective on 21st Century Expeditionary Mindset and Core Values: A Review of the Literature

by Patricia Shields

Published in Core Values and the Expeditionary Mindset: Armed Forces in Metamorphosis. 2011 Edited by Henrick Fust and Gerhard Kummel Baden-Baden: Nomos.  pp. 17-34

This book chapter reviews literature on core values and the expeditionary mindset. The historical context and... more This book chapter reviews literature on core values and the expeditionary mindset. The historical context and definitions are developed. Key tenets of the 21st century expeditionary mindset are identified and examined. Soldiers with an expeditionary mindset should first, be mentally prepared to deploy on short notice anywhere in the world; second, have the critical-thinking skills necessary to adapt quickly to a changing operational environment; third, work cooperatively with members of a Joint team; fourth, posses knowledge of the culture in the area of the local populace, and; fifth, the expeditionary force will be using 21st century network centric technology. The expeditionary force may require a reexamination of core values and an organizational transformation. The chapter examines implications and shows how the pragmatism of John Dewey may be able to reconcile possible contradictions.

Creative Action and War: The Case of the Nineteenth Century

by Eric Royal Lybeck

Working Paper

Drawing on the social theory of Joseph Schumpeter as applied to war, this paper attempts to trace the historical shift... more Drawing on the social theory of Joseph Schumpeter as applied to war, this paper attempts to trace the historical shift from “military entrepreneurs” to an “entrepreneurial function” during the course of the nineteenth century. Ideal-typical cases of creative action and war can be seen in the militant behavior of several actors in the early nineteenth century – notably Napoleon Bonaparte, Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, and Konstanin von Kaufmann, among others. During the course of the century, especially as Europe came under the influence of the military philosophy of Carl von Clausewitz, the entrepreneurial function became institutionalized within militaries’ General Staffs.

Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self

by Brian Taylor

When one does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their respective parts to examine both the parts... more When one does philosophy, one dismantles strings of concepts into their respective parts to examine both the parts themselves and the relationships the parts have with each other. This semantic reduction provides us the best possible opportunities for finding truth. This was exactly the type of skill Brian Taylor needed to write his new book Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self, postpaper publishing, ISBN: 978-0-557-99909-5 http://stores.lulu.com/postpaper

The book began as a series of blogged essays in a response to the “Authenticity” movement presented by the like of Eckhart Tolle, Andrew Cohen and to a lesser extent, Dr. Phil. These men, and others, were coming to conclusions on the idea of authenticity that were, among other things, subjective fallacies, rife with interpretation and possibly counterproductive. On the other side of the coin we had skeptical guru Michael Shermer or perhaps Richard Dawkins making up one half of the “four horseman of the non-apocalypse.” These men, “scientists,” were and still are guilty of the same faults as their spiritual counterparts, interpretations rather than knowledge. Brian Taylor wanted to know, “Are there any actual answers in the arena of the self and its power?” As it turns out, reality is far stranger than ever before known and we actually know so much less than we think we do, if it can be said that we know anything authentically, at all.

After four years of research into our ideas about the self through the ages, the sciences of the self and what the self is, this book comes to the conclusion that the modern self, you and I today, are not only manipulated, but that manipulation is sought out, required and pre-programmed. This is a book about how we are all being intentionally hyper-manipulated without our knowledge, by whom and to what end.

To “anti-social engineer” is to counter this phenomenon of modernity through critical consciousness, dubbed “assignee's prerogative.” This self direction is aimed toward eudaemonia, which is an Aristotelian idea roughly meaning “happiness and promotion,” and it is further suggested that virtue is found in the mean between excess and deficiency, in these concerns. This sounds rather simple in such a paragraph form, rest assured, chasing the meanings and relationships of these ideas to any philosophical depth requires a maze of rabbit holes and someone to guide you through them. Taylor is nothing if not thorough in this regard.

Entertaining, personal, conversational, exact and profound, this book has a strange undercurrent, almost a charge running through it. Most clearly defined in it's most opinionated moments, there is a subtext, not a call to arms but to a social contract. Taylor says, throughout the book, that it is specifically battling social engineering, the command, hidden or not, “think this about that.” Yet, he too wants us to think a certain way, a centrist “golden mean,” a path of no extremes. Making an argument against his ideas is difficult, regardless of the talking points he uses. (These vary from possible moral objections we may hold for prostitution or murder, to social norms such as supporting the troops or the war on terror.) In his most controversial moments, when objectivity is at its thinnest, the author's existentialism shines through and he suggests it's better to not claim to know something than to suspect something incorrectly. The exception to this rule is when the social engineering is secret, malicious, degenerative or merely in error.

There are things that we can do anti-social engineer our hyper-manipulated selves and Taylor spells these tasks out clearly. Firstly, social engineering, be it delivered by a television commercial, ideology, civility, social construct, etc. is to be expected and recognized. Then Taylor presents us his Philosophy Generator which is described as “a dismantling of paradigm” and a way to determine if any particular social engineering is more persuasive or manipulative. If we are able to first know what it is we are deciding, then do our best possible thinking on the matter, which is what working through the Generator is for, we should be able to be confident in our decision, whatever it may be. Furthermore, given the standardization of awareness, contemplation and centrist philosophy, it should be expected that the same benefit experienced by individuals would transfer to societies.

The book ends with a chapter called “God wears a yellow hat.” It is concluded with a list of 24 interesting intentions, (23 actually, one of them is missing,) this list is not meant to be a complete index of the topics discussed, but rather an indication of the book's scope. The war on terror, the war on drugs, food transportation, consumerism, capitalism, communism, false flags, dehumanization via technology, God, 2012, patriotism, culture, globalization, human rights and religion. There is an entire chapter devoted to a reasonable discussion between the two sides divided over the conspiracies associated with September 11, 2001. This book discusses conspiracy as it dismantles thought, which is a strange dichotomy. Taylor seems to want to convince us that he is a reasonable man, with a reasonable method and if such a man can find a reasonable conspiracy, we can take the suggestion from the fringe to the mainstream. He may be right. However, this is not a conspiracy book, this is a book about thinking.

One comes away from the experience of reading this book enticed to do more and this is the goal. Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self is about taking responsibility and looking ahead, prudently. It doesn't want to take anything away from you, you're entitled to have your beliefs as the author has his. We need our beliefs and we even need social engineering, these things are part of a natural, healthy species. The dangers of our beliefs are represented by the lack of awareness of them and the inability to think critically about them. Taylor argues that, if in fact we are not thinking well about the things we believe, we are not living up to the reasonable purpose we have as human beings. This appreciation of hyper-reality and our place in it defines our authenticity and is the promise expressed by the 21st Century Enlightenment.

La protection des civils dans les nouvelles configurations conflictuelles : retour au droit des gens ou dépassement du droit international humanitaire

by Gregory Lewkowicz

Complete reference:

Gregory Lewkowicz, "La protection des civils dans les nouvelles configurations conflictuelles : retour au droit des gens ou dépassement du droit international humanitaire" in Sorel, J.-M., Popescu, C.-L., (ed.), La protection des personnes vulnérables en temps de conflit armé, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2010, p.5-46.

Le débat autour des guerres dites "nouvelles" a fait couler beaucoup d’encre ces dernières années. La... more Le débat autour des guerres dites "nouvelles" a fait couler beaucoup d’encre ces dernières années. La littérature sur la question, émanant de politologues, d’historiens ou encore de stratèges, est considérable. En dépit de ses nombreuses imprécisions, la notion gagne aujourd’hui également du terrain dans le monde juridique. Elle conduit même une frange de la doctrine à douter du caractère adapté du cadre normatif international existant et de son efficacité eu égard notamment au principe de distinction entre combattants et non-combattants, principe cardinal, s’il en est, du droit international humanitaire.

Dans cette étude, l’auteur analyse la question des « nouvelles guerres » d’un point de vue à la fois historique et théorique en s’appuyant sur l’hypothèse d’une relation forte entre configurations conflictuelles et modes de régulation des conflits. Dans un premier temps, il met en évidence que les caractéristiques spécifiques des « nouvelles guerres » ne sont en fait pas fondamentalement différentes de celles des conflits pré-modernes. Partant, l’auteur réalise, dans un deuxième temps, une comparaison systématique entre certains instruments de régulation des conflits armés propres à l’époque pré-moderne et les nouveaux instruments de régulation, en particulier les codes de conduites, mis en œuvre dans le cadre des guerres dites nouvelles. Cette comparaison conduit à reconnaître que ces nouveaux instruments de régulation empruntent largement, du point de vue de leur forme et du type de normativité dont ils procèdent, aux modes pré-modernes de régulation des conflits. La reconnaissance de la spécificité de l’efficace de ces instruments constitue aussi, à ce titre, un préalable nécessaire à une compréhension adaptée de l’évolution normative du droit des conflits armés.

Fort de cette comparaison, l’auteur s’interroge enfin sur les rapports entre les « nouveaux » instruments de régulation et le droit international humanitaire qui avait, durant la modernité, réussi à se défaire des instruments pré-modernes de régulation des conflits. Il identifie trois types de rapports mutuels. Premièrement, le droit international humanitaire peut être relayé par ces instruments. En ce sens, ceux-ci viendraient renforcer le contenu normatif du droit existant en servant de vecteurs aux normes actuelles. Deuxièmement, ce droit peut-être suppléer par ces nouveaux instruments lesquels viendraient alors spécifier de manière contextuelle la règle de droit ou combler, le cas échéant, certaines lacunes du droit contemporain. Enfin, le droit international humanitaire peut se voir supplanter par ces nouveaux instruments de régulation lesquels affaibliraient ainsi le cadre normatif existant et contribueraient à l’émergence de régimes spécifiques, autonomes et, sans doute, dérogatoires. Exprimée sous la forme d’une alternative dramatique, la question posée par les nouvelles guerres et les instruments de régulation qui les accompagnent est ainsi de savoir si nous assistons actuellement à un retour au droit des gens ou au dépassement, même partiel, du droit international humanitaire prenant la forme d’une nouvelle lex armorum.

"Jus Ad Bellum After 9/11: A State of the Art Report"

by Mark Rigstad

The International Political Theory Beacon, Volume 3, June 2007

Cannibalism, the First Crusade, and the Genesis of Medieval Romance

by Geraldine Heng

Divine Hunger - The Cannibal War Machine

by Neil L. Whitehead

Presentation given to the Conference - Sacred Empowerment - University of Leeds, June 2011...with special thanks to Lori Shelbourn

Callwell versus Graziani: how the British Army applied 'small wars' techniques in major operations in Africa and the Middle East, 1940–41

by Simon Anglim

This is a manuscript copy of a paper I published in 'Small Wars and Insurgencies', Volume 19 No.4, December 2008

The period 1940-41 saw British forces in North and East Africa, and the Middle East, defeat considerably larger... more The period 1940-41 saw British forces in North and East Africa, and the Middle East, defeat considerably larger Italian and Vichy French forces in the Western Desert, Ethiopia, Somaliland and Syria. A key factor in this was the use at the operational and tactical level of fast-moving mobile forces, operating dispersed and with considerable initiative devolved upon junior commanders. This has been put down to a range of influences - Liddell Hart, Percy Hobart, Eric Dorman-Smith, etc, but this paper demonstrates its origins in the 'small wars' practices of the inter-war years, upon which a major influence was Major General Callwell's much-cited, but not often read tome, 'Small Wars'.

Orde Wingate And The British Army, 1922-1944: Military Thought and Practice Compared and Contrasted

by Simon Anglim

Orde Wingate,'Guerrilla'Warfare and Long-range Penetration, 1940–44

by Simon Anglim

A draft copy of the paper summarising the development of Orde Wingate's military thought, post-Palestine, published in 'Small Wars and Insurgencies', Volume 17 No.3, September 2006.

Major General Orde Wingate was a highly controversial figure in his time and remains so among historians. However, his... more Major General Orde Wingate was a highly controversial figure in his time and remains so among historians. However, his eccentric and colourful personality has drawn attention away from the nature of his military ideas, the most important of which was his concept of long range penetration, which originated from his observations of his operations in Italian-occupied Ethiopia in 1941, and evolved into the model he put into practice in the Chindit operations in Burma in 1943-44. A review of Wingate’s own official writings on this subject reveals that long range penetration combined local guerrilla irregulars, purpose-trained regular troops and airpower into large-scale offensive operations deep in the enemy rear, with the intention of disrupting his planning process and creating situation regular forces could exploit. This evolved organically from Major General Colin Gubbins’ doctrine for guerrilla resistance in enemy occupied areas, and bears some resemblance to the operational model applied by US and Allied forces, post September 2001.

Phileas Fogᵍ, or the Cyclonic Passepartout: On the Alchemical Elements of War

by Dan Mellamphy

Dan Mellamphy and Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Forthcoming in Ed Keller, Nicola Masciandaro and Eugene Thacker (eds.), Proceedings of the First International Cyclonopedia Symposium (New York: Punctum Books, 2012 http://www.createspace.com/3790549) 192-212.

http://tiny.cc/cyclonopedia

This paper, written... more http://tiny.cc/cyclonopedia

This paper, written for the First International
Cyclonopedia Symposium (http://www.newschool.edu/
parsons/events.aspx?id=61278) in which we participated
along with a group of our graduate students from the CSTC,
engages the theories of War that have been articulated in
Reza Negarestani’s text, and specifically the notion of
the hyper-camouflaged agent of militarized taqiyya.
The latter (the agent of militarized taqiyya) is
correlated in our essay with three distinct
yet inter-related strands in and of
Cyclonopedia’s military analysis:
one that is “mathematical” (namely
geometrical analyses of trisonic cyclones);
one that is “mythological” (namely the analyses of
the Assyrian “Lamassu complex”); and one that is perhaps
more straightforwardly as opposed to obliquely (i.e. geo-
metrically and mythologically) “militant” and “military”:
the analyses of the militant religious Naphtanese
or People of Napht, a “transient omnipresence
inside and outside the battlefield” whose
tactics and strategies are based on “the belief
that War has a life of its own” ...The Naphtanese them-
selves endeavor to become the ‘Fog of War’, and we argue
in the present work that agents of militarized taqiyya are
equivalents within so-called ‘peace’-time of this
becoming-‘fog’ -- but whereas the Naphtanese fog
is akin to the black smoke of the battlefield (the earthly
vapors of the Ancient Greek ‘Aer’), the fog of taqiyya
is far more aethereal (akin to the Ancient Greek
‘Aether’, related to ‘Aer’ insofar as it is a
rarified form of the latter, ‘Ae[the]r’).
What Negarestani calls “the militarization of peace”
brings into play an entire aethereal network
and an alchemy of such [a]ethernet-
works.

“Massen-Töten. Diskurse und Praktiken der kriegerischen und genozidalen Gewalt im 20. Jahrhundert,” in Thomas Kühne & Peter R. Gleichmann, eds., Massenhaftes Töten. Kriege und Genozide im 20. Jahrhundert (Essen: Klartext, 2004): 11-52

by Thomas Kühne

Per un lessico politico di Leonardo da Vinci. II. Indizi di polemologia: “naturalità” del conflitto e “necessarietà” della guerra

by Marco Versiero

published in «Bruniana & Campanelliana», vol. XV, no. 1, 2009, pp. 121-134

The second instalment of my exploration of Leonardo’s political lexicon deals with
the theme of warfare, as... more The second instalment of my exploration of Leonardo’s political lexicon deals with
the theme of warfare, as documented by two different, but interrelated, series of
tests. The analysis concerns, on the one hand, Leonardo’s anthropology and cosmolo-
gy, highlighting his ideal of naturalness in politics, especially with regard to the notion
that conflict is the inevitable concomitant of all human relationships. On the other
hand, I discuss Leonardo’s involvement in the military arts and his attempt to explain
and justify war as a means of preserving the liberty of a state, in order to illustrate his
idea of the necessity of war in certain circumstances. The final aim of the article is to
propose a way of reconciling Leonardo’s activity as a military engineer and architect
with his own undoubted pacifism.

Holy Wars Two Millennia Apart: Religious Rhetoric, Oppositional Politics, and Cultural Identity

by Geoff Berry

First published in Iris, the journal of the Classics Association of Victoria, in 2008.

Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, noting the perennial... more Compares the 'War on Terror' rhetoric of the recent Bush administration with a Dead Sea Scroll, noting the perennial use of the idea that 'we' are on the side of light while the enemy are a force of darkness. Interestingly, the ancient War Scroll motivates its audience to war on behalf of a marginal minority sect, while the US example employs similar symbols and stories on behalf of the world's major superpower. Once again the incredible flexibility of mythic symbols such as light and darkness is proven.

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIME OF AGGRESSION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBAL ‘WAR ON TERROR’: SOME LEGAL AND ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES

by Sascha-Dominik Bachmann

Co-Authored with Professor Kemp, University of Stellenbosch

This article presents the argument that the legal uncertainty surrounding the crime of aggression in a time of ‘war on... more This article presents the argument that the legal uncertainty surrounding the crime of aggression in a time of ‘war on terror’ causes not only problems in terms of individual criminal liability, but also considerable ethical dilemmas for soldiers participating in armed operations. The well-developed jus in bello (rules governing the conduct of soldiers in times of war) provides for the normative paradigm which ultimately help soldiers to keep to the ideals of a more humane kind of warfare. However, the jus ad bellum in flux – a state of international affairs to which the ‘war on terror’ contributed considerably – bring about moral dilemmas for soldiers. Some case studies are discussed below. It is argued that the process to define the crime of aggression for inclusion in the (Rome) statute of the international criminal court provides an opportunity to bring about more legal certainty. While aggression should be regarded as a leadership crime par excellence, legal certainty in this context will provide for better moral guidance to soldiers on the ground in times of war – including, and especially, in times of the ambiguous ‘war on terror’.

Chaoplexic Warfare or the Future of Military Organization

by Antoine Bousquet

International Affairs - Volume 84, Issue 5, pages 915–929, September 2008

Scientific methods and concepts have been exerting a powerful influence on the exercising of armed force since the... more Scientific methods and concepts have been exerting a powerful influence on the exercising of armed force since the Scientific Revolution and the dawn of the modern era. In association with the respective technologies of the clock, engine and computer, the scientific theories of mechanism, thermodynamics, and cybernetics have all in turn been recruited to shape distinct approaches to the challenges of imposing order on the chaos of the battlefield. Today, it is on the basis of the new sciences of chaos and complexity that the latest regime of the scientific way of warfare is being erected. Chaoplexic warfare draws on the study of nonlinear phenomena of self-organization to propose a radical decentralization of armed forces through the adoption of the network form. For all its present flaws, network-centric warfare and its operational concepts of self-synchronization and swarming mark an important step on the path to chaoplexic warfare.

War

by Antoine Bousquet

Book chapter for Edwin Amenta, Kate Nash, & Alan Scott (eds.), New Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology (forthcoming)

The study of war as an object of social theory has in recent decades finally begun to receive the attention that such... more The study of war as an object of social theory has in recent decades finally begun to receive the attention that such an enduring and multi-faceted phenomenon merits. Indeed, the history of armed conflict is closely connected to the emergence of the modern world, the rise of the nation-state and the development of industrial capitalism, as the work of prominent historical sociologists has now shown. The ways in which societies fight and organise military force can thus shed invaluable light on their wider social and cultural dynamics, revealing the workings of some of their most intimate mechanisms of social power and the roles played by discipline, rationalisation and technoscience. Further analytical challenges await those scholars seeking to grapple with the ongoing transformations of war in a globalising world, from the changing relations of military institutions to civil society in the developed world to the occurrence of “new wars” and the resurgence of non-state actors contesting the state’s monopoly on violence.