Wars amongst the people: an adequate or useful concept for understanding the recent (that is, since WWII) history of warfare? The framing device borrowed from General Rupert Smith, of a paradigm shift in the nature of war over the last seven decades from war "as a massive deciding event ... a battle in a field between men and machinery" to "war amongst the people." To what extent do the wars (Chinese Civil War, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam Wars, the wars in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine) conform to Smith's thesis? And to what extent does the emphasis on "war amongst the people" help to identify some of the characteristic features of the wars in our contemporary world? Those questions of course imply the other side of the coin: what does Smith's thesis miss or what might it lead us to under-emphasize or overlook in the warfare of the last several decades? Examine both sides of the question (that is, that the idea that trend toward "wars amongst the people" is both useful but that it also elides certain aspects of contemporary warfare). The war in Ukraine: what appears at first sight to be a "conventional" war. And yet maybe not. What does that war suggest about the validity of Smith's thesis?

Question

Wars amongst the people: an adequate or useful concept for understanding the recent (that is, since WWII) history of warfare?

The framing device borrowed from General Rupert Smith, of a paradigm shift in the nature of war over the last seven decades from war "as a massive deciding event ... a battle in a field between men and machinery" to "war amongst the people."

To what extent do the wars (Chinese Civil War, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam Wars, the wars in Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine) conform to Smith's thesis? And to what extent does the emphasis on "war amongst the people" help to identify some of the characteristic features of the wars in our contemporary world? Those questions of course imply the other side of the coin: what does Smith's thesis miss or what might it lead us to under-emphasize or overlook in the warfare of the last several decades?

Examine both sides of the question (that is, that the idea that trend toward "wars amongst the people" is both useful but that it also elides certain aspects of contemporary warfare).

The war in Ukraine: what appears at first sight to be a "conventional" war. And yet maybe not. What does that war suggest about the validity of Smith's thesis?