War and Society

Out there in the world of military theory is a debate about where our future military requirements rest.  Is the future just more Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency or is it back to conventional operations or is it "fourth generation" or something else?  For us the question boils down to how big an Army we need and how much it will cost.  And, how big of a Navy and Air Force, and they cost a lot.

Here is an article from the blog Kings of War.  This is a blog maintained for various faculty and research students at the Department of War Studies, King's College, London.

Here is the main thesis, without the preparatory words:

The West has evolved a way of war ideally suited for fighting amongst itself.  Michael Howard tells the story succinctly:  In the first phase, the rise of state bureaucracies, allowing for large standing armies; next the rise of nationalism and the passionate commitment of whole peoples to war, allowing still greater mass; then industry, and a dramatic increase in destructive power.

Finally in recent decades, a new trend, as further societal and technological changes increasingly estranged the wider population from its small, professional military cadre.  The resultant postmodern societies are for the most part happily isolated from pre-modern violence, and have the liberty to demand a uniquely liberal way of war.  They rightly demand the increasingly stringent use of force by their armed forces, and are able to foot a huge bill for the technology to achieve that.  This view of postmodern societies and armies is well described in some of Christopher Coker’s writing.

And so, as throughout recent centuries, much of what is new to warfare is being driven by the West, in particular by the evolving relationship between its citizens, states and soldiers.

There are useful embedded links, which can be viewed in the original.

What makes this interesting to the average audience is the fact that it relates the changes in society to how we act in war and perceive war.  Here is another person's take on this:

The author's point about the estrangement of modern society from the realities of warfare is key, although I would argue it has been building for well over a century now and has only gathered momentum in the past two or three decades.   The psychological ignorance of post-modern civilian populations from the essentially violent aspects of human nature—as integral part of our humanity as our capacity for love and compassion—is absolutely unbelievable by pre-modern standards, and it really has all been enabled by technology.

So, the point is that modern information technology is bringing us war at the same time our sensibilities are changing.  Thus, this comment applies:

This reminds me of a story my wife told me.

She's originally from the Leesburg, VA, area, and grew up when there was one traffic light between there and Tysons Corner.  (For those not familiar w/ the DC area, there are now several dozen lights between the two locations, and the farmland out there has been raising crops of townhouses for the last decade.)

When she was growing up, a local restaurant (Johnson's Charcoal House, which we went to several times before it finally closed a couple of years ago) would buy the prize beef cattle from that year's class of 4-H kids at the Loudoun County fair.  As the area suburbanized, more and more suburbanites frequented the fair—folks who were not familiar w/ farming.

So, one year, the prize-winning cow was on display, w/ a sign saying that Johnson's Charcoal House was proud to have purchased it, to show support for the 4-H Club. And one of the new kids asked what they were going to do w/ the cow.  The owner smiled, and said that they would be serving it at the restaurant, that coming week.

The kid was appalled, and asked, "You mean THAT cow?!"

And the mother, who was nearby, promptly rushed over and said, "No, no, dear. That's just the DEMO cow."

It's a great story, but it also underscores that, even when it's not about war, more and more folks have lost psychological touch w/ the grim realities of life.  Like where meat comes from.

The take away is that we are becoming increasingly disconnected from the hard facts of life.  I know I am and I like it that way.  But, it can impact how we view what our Armed Forces are doing for us out there.

Regards  —  Cliff