Targeting the ontology of war : from Clausewitz to Baudrillard

Nordin, Astrid and Öberg, Dan (2015) Targeting the ontology of war : from Clausewitz to Baudrillard. Millennium : Journal of International Studies, 43 (2). pp. 392-419. ISSN 0305-8298

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Abstract

Against a surprising level of agreement between Clausewitz, contemporary military doctrines and critical war studies on an ontology of war as fighting, we suggest that the study of contemporary warfare needs to focus more on war as processing. Through Jean Baudrillard we argue that at least some of what is referred to as ‘war’ is no longer characterised by encounters through fighting. We exemplify our argument by how the repetitive battle-rhythm of military targeting strives for perfect war. What remains is not war as an object in itself, but a reified ‘war’ that obscures the disappearance of that very object. The debate on war contributes to the reification of such a war, as an imperative telling us: ‘we have a concept, you must learn to think through it’.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Millennium : Journal of International Studies
Additional Information:
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3320
Subjects:
?? ontology of warcritical war studiesbaudrillarddisappearancetargetingwarfareclausewitzpolitical science and international relationssociology and political science ??
ID Code:
76453
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
03 Nov 2015 19:17
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
21 Mar 2024 00:38