Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

life are also in tune with post-modern images of social systems. Finally, the very title ofBoyd’s work; A Discourse suggests a post-modern view on how he developed his ideas andwhat his work stands for: a dynamic vehicle to convey and develop meaning. And at theheart of it all lies knowledge, a theme shared with numerous studies on war and warfare in thepost-modern era, such as Information War, Cyberwar, Netwar, and Network CentricWarfare, all part of a discourse on a Revolution in Military Affairs. These concepts leanheavily on Boydian concepts and also find inspiration in the new sciences. In this senseBoyd’s contribution to strategic theory and military thought is nicely described by RichardDawkins, who said:Often the most important contribution a scientist can make is to discover a new way of seeingold theories or facts. A change of vision can usher in a whole climate of thinking in whichmany exciting and testable theories are born, and unimagined facts laid bare 8 .The following observations on post-modernity highlight the various similarities betweenpost-modern notions in social and IR theory and Boyd’s work, allowing Boyd to bepositioned within a larger theoretical framework, and providing an additional angle onBoyd’s arguments as well as on their validity.Post-modernism arose to prominence in cultural and scientific life during the eighties,when key figures such as Lyotard, Derrida, Habermas, Foucault, Bauman and Giddenspublished widely discussed studies on the “post-modern condition”. Christopher Cokernotes that ‘in the run up to the end of the Cold War (December 1989), post-modernitybecame a leading school of thought in Europe’ 9 . ‘Post-modernism is the social, cultural andpolitical air we breath. It permeates virtually all facets of contemporary life in the West’,another author noted 10 .Post-modernism has gained several meanings. Pauline Rosenau notes that ‘there are asmany forms of post-modernism as there are post-modernists’ 11 . Darryl Jarvis observes thatthere is no single definition and it ‘remains a curious lexeme of essentially contestedconcepts, disparate ideas, obtuse meanings, and political agendas 12 . Indeed, there are manyways to describe what is meant by post-modernism. It is an epochal change followingmodernism, the term used to describe the cultural styles and movements of the first half ofthe 20 th Century. And there are some common themes in the various interpretations of thisepochal change. Disturbance, disruption, re-inscription, and the penchant to “rethink”knowledge are common to its sense of self. And few disciplines since the 1970s have beenuntouched by the temerity of post-modern writings and readings. Philosophy, politics, music,8 Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, p.xi.9 Christopher Coker, ‘Post-modernity and the end of the Cold War: has war been disinvented?’, Reviewof International Studies, 1992, Vol. 18, p.189. See also Bradford Booth, Meyer Kestnbaum, and David R.Segal, ‘Are Post-Cold War Militaries Postmodern?’, Armed Forces & Society, Vol.27, No.3, Spring 2001,pp.319, where they assert that ‘the theoretical perspective of postmodernism has becomecommonplace in sociology’. See for an introduction into modernity and postmodernity also KennethThompson, ‘Social Pluralism and Post-Modernity’, and Gregor McLennan, ‘The enlightenmentProject Revisited’, both in Stuart Hall, David Held and Tony McGrew, Modernity and its Futures, PolityPress, Blackwells, Oxford, 1992.10 Peter van Ham, European Integration and the Postmodern Condition, Routlegde, London, 2001, p. 7.11 Pauline Rosenau, Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences, Princeton, 1992, p.15. The first chapterprovides a concise overview of both various interpretations and meanings of post-modernism as itsintellectual lineage and history.12 Darryl Jarvis, ‘Postmodernism: A Critical Typology’, Politics and Society, Vol.26, No.1, March 1998,p.98.287