New War Theory

War today

Lecture 10
Monday March 14, 2011

PEACE ST 2BB3: Introduction to the Study of War

Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

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 Outline

• What is/is there something ‘new’

• No draft
• Implications
• Technological warfare

2
 New War Theory

• post-Berlin wall collapse (1989)

• Mix of conventional warfare, organised crime &

human rights violations

3
 Criticisms

• Historical exceptionalism?

• Targeting of civilians

• Territorial sovereignty

• Is there no draft/conscription?

4
 Wired for war

• PW Singer (2009)

• New York Times non-fiction

best seller list

• Financial Times non-fiction

book of the year

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Does a new kind of war render traditional legal
restraints on warfare void and justify new rules?

Are torture, detention without trial or even pre-

emptive military strikes all necessary responses within a
new security paradigm?
Helen Dexter (2007)

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 Citations & further reading
Helen Dexter (2007) ‘New War, Good War and the War on Terror: Explaining,
Excusing and Creating Western Neo-interventionism’, Development and Change, Vol.
38, No. 6:1055–1071

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 Image sources
Pablo Picasso (1937) Guernica. Oil on canvas.
Unknown soldier in Iraq. Date unknown. sourced from http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/
some-interior-situational-sources-war-–-part-v/
Carlos Latuff (2003) War 2. Sourced from http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/War-2-27832944
Crimethinc (undated) War on Terror/Drugs. http://www.crimethinc.com/tools/downloads/
Shaney Komulainen of Canadian Press (Sept 1 1990) Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimeter
sentry, and Mohawk Warrior Brad "Freddy Krueger" Larocque face off. Remixed by dangerousbob,
deviantART — http://dangerousbob.deviantart.com/art/Okarom-Crisis-79679086

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 Video Sources
PW Singer on military robots and the future of war, April 2009.
http://www.ted.com/talks/pw_singer_on_robots_of_war.html