War as We Knew It: The Real Revolution in Military Affairs/Understanding Paralysis in Military Operations
Abstract
This paper is an exploration of the nature of war in the future. In particular, it explores the symptoms of what appears to be a transition, in thought and practice, from a way of warfare that is centered on the notion of destruction to one that has paralysis as its center of gravity. The idea that future war will be "paralysis-based" provides a framework for discerning, interpreting, and organizing a collection of seemingly disconnected phenomena. It is not an argument for a kinder and gentler way of war per se. There has been a great deal of discussion inside and outside Washington, DC in recent years about the emergence of a so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This transition will not be the product of a deliberate design for a RMA design, but will instead be the outcome of a confluence of seemingly disparate societal, technological, and intellectual transitions, of which the RMA is merely one symptom. This is not new. The prevailing destruction-based model of war did not become fully mature until the eve of World War I, when a series of developments converged. This convergence included the intellectualization of war as a destructive process by Carl von Clausewitz; the Industrial Revolution; the expansion of popular participatory government; the growth of rampant nationalism and attendant cultivation of hatred of outsiders; and the popularity of the social-darwinistic conception of war as a societal re-juvenating necessity. This essay discusses the Clausewitzian roots of the modern destruction-based model of warfare, how the Industrial Revolution enabled the idea of war to be turned into the material reality of two world wars, the effect of nuclear weapons on conventional military thought, how the professional military and civilian defense intelligentsia came to grips with the nuclear anomaly, and how the end of the Cold War has led to a security environment whose characteristics are at odds with the destruction-based model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA425528
Entities
People
- Jan S. Breemer
Organizations
- Air War College