Review: War Made New
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400426 |
| Author | Jonathan Winkler |
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
democracy, rights, and the rule of law, whereas what we should do to protect
ourselves from external threats should be rooted in international political
strategies to contain the aggressive behaviour of other states. But this very
separation, for Bobbitt, now jeopardizes our capacity to fight contemporary
terrorism. The threat that terror now poses is not a function of the politics of
a hostile state, nor does it arise solely from causes endogenous to any
particular state or states. Strategic responses abroad that do not respect legal
norms—and legal responses at home that ignore strategic considerations—
compound the problem. Terrorism today requires a more complex
understanding of the relationship between law and strategy. In Bobbitt’s
words, “we shall have to think in terms of strategic doctrines that reinforce
the legal institutions that command power among states as well as
anticipatory legal institutions that operate strategically within our borders”
(17). Terror and Consent is the result of such thinking, and it should be
required reading for those of us interested in even a small part of its rich and
controversial canvas.
Patrick Macklem/University of Toronto
WAR MADE NEW
Technology, Warfare and the Course of History, 1500 to Today
Max Boot
New York: Gotham Books, 2006. 640pp, US$35.00 cloth
ISBN 1-592-40222-4
This is a sweeping and ambitious book that takes aim at the current debates
about the future of warfare. Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations and author of the notable Savage Wars of Peace: Small
Wars and the Rise of American Power (2002), has looked to the past to
inform the reader about what can come to pass. Unsurprisingly, he concludes
that despite the rapidly increasing pace and cost of military-technological
innovation, the United States needs to continue to innovate to dominate
“across the entire spectrum” of military power if it hopes to retain its
qualitative lead and great power status (472). Though...
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