The military historian John Keegan called the Second World War the first industrialized war in the history of mankind. It was the first modern war, or series of battles, in which state resources were mobilized, populations conscripted towards the ends of making war, and weapons mass produced in factories. The future political landscape of the world, in effect, also relied on the military outcomes of battles fought by opposing armies on the battlefield. Had Germany and Japan triumphed in World War Two, the world order today could well follow fascism instead of democracy as the standard model ruling ideology.
The beginning of modern warfare can be argued to have really started after the end of the Second World War. There are several marked features characterizing the differences of wars fought before and after World War Two.
Firstly, the existence of nuclear weapons successfully deterred powerful nations from engaging in outright warfare. States may build large conventional armed forces, but in an effort to avoid military operations, more interstate or inter-organizational negotiations were held to resolve issues and disputes.
Secondly, wars were not necessarily won anymore by the militarily stronger side. Modern state armies equipped with superior weaponry and training could still be defeated by fragmented and smaller guerilla forces using more primitive weapons. The Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War were two cases in point.
Thirdly, small scale border skirmishes generally were in conclusive and changes little of the political status quo. Short of the Gulf War in 1991, in which Iraq was severely weakened before and after its invasion of Kuwait, and the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, by intervening Indian forces into East Pakistan, states were not destroyed nor governments changed. Other wars such as the Falklands War, the Iraq-Iran War, the various Arab Israeli conflicts did not lead to the regime demise of the losing side, nor did it bring additional political power or economic wealth to the victors.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which marked the end of the Cold War, war or rather, the application of military force, was employed on small scale campaigns by richer nations in pursuit of political agendas in the international context. Examples include the UN intervention in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda. In a sense, small scale insurgencies and acts of terrorism amounting to unresolved civil wars are more the norm throughout the world.
The last interstate conventional war, the 2003 Iraq War, effectively lasted merely 20 days, but developed into almost two years of low intensity conflict fought by Iraqi insurgents against the US ground military, and later also the Iraqi government forces. The controversy surrounding this particular war will not be discussed here in detail, but suffice it to say that a bad political decision taken by the USA had led to much wastage in economic terms as well as human lives. By February 2005, over a 100,000 Iraqis and almost 1500 US military personnel have been killed in Iraq.
Thus it can be seen that three characteristics of the modern international security context are evident. Firstly, states maintain large conventional forces but are generally reluctant to fight wars against each other. Second, small terrorist or insurgent groups fighting low intensity conflicts are now more frequent in contemporary times. Third, state policy makers and national leaders may no longer confidently depend on military victories in influencing the political outcome of the aftermath situation. Modern issues of conflict also take on the social, ethnic, religious and political dimensions. This in part, is also helped by the process of globalization.
Therefore national leaders can no longer rely solely on military might alone to determine the outcomes of wars and conflicts. Indeed, creative and more subtle ways, again making use of modern infrastructure, must be employed in ingenious ways to resolve conflict issues. Social issues, such as grievances, as well as economic improvement measures to alleviate poverty and corruption have to be addressed alongside the employment of military force when
The writer holds a Master of Science in Strategic Studies from the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS). He currently writes commentaries and analysis articles on international affairs, security issues and terrorism for newspapers. He can be reached at erickoopk@yahoo.com
Bookmark/Search this post with:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
