CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

We might further note, in support of Münkler’s assertion of similarity between new
wars and those of pre-Thirty Years War Europe, that the tendency to try to reduce losses
by the engaging force, even at the expense of the civilian population, can be seen both
in the West’s seeking to engage predominantly from the air or at least from distance on
the ground, and in the methods of terrorists and insurgents. (This point is not intended
in any way to equate Western military intervention to the actions of terrorists and
insurgents, merely to note that in both cases, the imperative to minimise own force
casualties impacts directly on the civilian population, just as was the case before and
during the Thirty Years War.)
Not only the New wars that have emerged in Africa, South East Asia and the Balkans,
but also the terrorist campaign waged by Islamic extremists against (predominantly) the
West, have exemplified a lack of restraint in either target or method of attack. The
contrast with what has gone before was described thus by UK Defence Secretary John
Reid 34 :
The enemy our parents and grandparents faced … … wore a different uniform to
theirs, but had aims and, by and large, had conduct they could understand. The
enemy fought much as we fought; his forces were structured much the same
way. And, by and large, they accepted the same conventions. Today’s most
dangerous, global enemy, the terrorist * , does not.
…. …..
We face an adversary:
Which revels in mass murder;
Which sets out to cause the greatest pain it can to innocent people;
Which is entirely unconstrained by any law;
Which sees all civilians, including women and children not as noncombatants
but as easy targets;
Which sees terror as a key part of its arsenal, and
Which both glorifies and operates suicide bombers.
It is an enemy unfettered by any sense of morality ….
The lack of distinction between acts of war and acts of crime means that military forces
will find themselves not only engaged in traditional and non-traditional combat
operations, but needing, too, to deal with organised crime, drug production and
transportation, and human-trafficking. The nature of contemporary security challenges,
* And the same is true of many other protagonists in New Wars.
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