Publication |
July-Sep 2004.
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Summary/Abstract |
War is a multi-faceted phenomenon. Against the trend of conceptualising war from a technological perspective, a historically sensitive strategic perspective on war is suggested, relying on Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm. The analytical utility of this framework on war is strengthened by investigating its historical relevance, as well as by applying it to the evaluation of the post-Cold War conceptualizations of war. In the latter context, the influence of six essential factors on contemporary definitions of war is established. Accordingly, the "nature" of contemporary war is conceptualized via the process of reproducing and transforming the Cold War-era understandings of war.
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