How have certain modern conflicts been described as ‘New Wars?’ Essay

Whilst overaged struggles have sometimes been referred to as interstate industrial warf ar which relate wars between states being fought by armed passs in uniform, with decisive encounters being decided on one battlefield, in the altogether wars have been draw by Mary Kaldor as intra-state wars. In the last 20 age we have seen a paradigm shift from armies with comparable forces doing battle on a field to strategic opposite between a represent of combatants using different types of weapons .These so-called pertly wars which involve the hold of civilians as both targets and objectives to be won, have been said to have been led by globalisation, due to the fact that the integration created has led to fragmentation, as seen in the Yugoslavian wars with these wars being wars on identity.An identity war is a conflict in which the quest for cultural regeneration, expressed with the demand that a races collective identity is publicly and politically recognised, is a primeval motivation for conflict. These new wars have constructed new sectarian identities (religious, ethical or tribal) that undermine the moxie of a shared political community. They recreate the sense of political community along the new lines through purpose of vexation and hate. These intra-state identity conflicts have been prominent in many recent conflicts, with the Iraq war and The Arab Spring seeing the recurrence of tensions between the Shia and Shiite Muslims. Furthermore, conflicts in the Congo, Rwanda and Sudan were also fought on the lines of ethnicity, with ethnicity also being a real cause in the Yugoslav wars with Slavic Christians being pitted against Bosnian Muslims.Furthermore, new wars have differing characteristics to old wars. As mentioned earlier, old wars traditionally saw conventional armies fighting against for each one other, however with new wars, we have seen a blurring between civilians and spends. This can be seen through the feminization of war, which ha s been seen in conflicts such as Rwanda, and the use of baby soldiers in conflicts throughout Africa including Rwanda, sierra Leone and Congo.This change has meant that women and children have fit the chief(prenominal) targets and victims of war and armed conflict in todays conflicts. It estimated that 75% of all African wars are fought by children, and whilst rape has traditionally been a by-product of war for many centuries, it is now perspective that War ravishment is genuine military tactic. War Rape has been seen primarily in Rwanda where it is thought that 1 million women were raped and in the Yugoslavian Wars where Rape Camps were see up. As one UN peacekeeper working in Africa put it, It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in an armed conflict.New conflicts have also seen new tactical manoeuvre come in to play aside from War Rape. Often new conflicts have seen the occurrence of Asymmetrical wars. Asymmetric warfare exists when two combatant s are so different in their characters, and in their areas of comparative advantage, that a confrontation between them comes to turn one sides ability to force the other side to fight on their own terms. Tactics employ in these conflicts are often Guerrilla warfare and low-intensity hit and step on it conflict. An obvious example of this is seen in the conflict in Afghanistan through the use of IEDS and roadside bombs. Essentially such strategies used in the war of the flea involve inflicting pain over time without suffering unbearable retaliation in return.Lastly, new conflicts differ from old conflicts through their funding. Whilst old conflicts were funded through the state, as seen in the WW2 and the entrance into total war, new wars are characterised by funding through the criminality of war. This illegal funding has been seen in Sierra Leone, where funding was acquired through the selling of blood diamonds, in Afghanistan where the Taliban are funded through the selling of o pium, and finally in the Bosnian war, where counterfeit cigarettes funded Para-military groups involved in ethnic cleansing.To conclude, recent modern conflicts have been classified as new conflicts as they differ through their legitimacy, funding and tactics.