Clausewitz's Trinity and Contemporary Conflict

Much as Martin van Creveld predicted in 1991, contemporary conflicts have tended to occur within, rather than between, states. Conversely, van Creveld's contention that such conflicts would not be amenable to Clausewitzian analysis has been the subject of much debate. More specifically, Clausew...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCivil wars Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 282 - 296
Main Author Stone, John
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.09.2007
Subjects
Armed forces
Balkan States
Civil society
Civil War
Clausewitz, Karl von
Conceptualization
Conflict theory
Ethnic Relations
Government
International relations theory
Iraq
Political structure
Theories
Warfare
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Much as Martin van Creveld predicted in 1991, contemporary conflicts have tended to occur within, rather than between, states. Conversely, van Creveld's contention that such conflicts would not be amenable to Clausewitzian analysis has been the subject of much debate. More specifically, Clausewitz's famous 'Trinity' has been shown to be capable of accommodating non-state strategic actors as readily as the state-based variety. Quite what this means for the strategic analysis of contemporary conflict was not clearly spelt out in the debate on the Trinity, however. In this article, therefore, an attempt is made to present a specific approach to employing the Trinity as an aid to strategic analysis, with particular reference to the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans and the current war in Iraq.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:1369-8249
1743-968X
DOI:10.1080/13698240701479281