New wars

New wars is a term advanced by British academic Mary Kaldor to characterize warfare in the post-Cold War era. This form of warfare is characterized by:

  • violence between varying combinations of state and non-state networks
  • fighting in the name of identity politics as opposed to ideology
  • attempts to achieve political, rather than physical, control of the population through fear and terror
  • conflict financed not necessarily through the state, but through other predatory means that seek the continuation of violence

Other terms used for the concept include "wars among the people", "wars of the third kind", "hybrid wars", "privatized wars", and "post-modern wars". The new wars thesis has been adopted and adapted by other authors, as well as critiqued from various perspectives.

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