Can the Art of Warfare be Systematised?

Kirjoittajat

• Aki-Mauri Huhtinen
• Pasi Kesseli

Abstrakti

The modern era, the Enlightenment and national states changed the art of warfare. The notion of moving from a God-centred worldview to one centred on man loomed in the background, and it was imagined that humanism, as a part of the scientific revolution, would replace the barbarity of the past. By the beginning of the 20th century, man-made technology was lifted off the surface of the Earth, enabling airborne surveillance and control of the world. In military science, the corresponding development is known as Douhetism. Today, however, we have come to see that the fundamental challenges of both civilian life and military action cannot be solved by striking quickly and from high up and afar. According to Kellner (2008, 63), the youth of the new millenium are the first generation to live the themes of postmodern theory. Entropy, chaos, indeterminancy, contingency, simulation, and hyper reality are not just concepts they might encounter in a seminar, but forces that constitute the very texture of their experience, as they deal with corporate downsizing and the disappearance of good jobs, economic recession, information and media overload, the demands of a high-tech computer society, crime and violence, identity crises, terrorism, war, and increasingly unpredictable future. For the youth, contemporary life is a wild and dangerous ride, a rapid roller coaster of thrills and spills plunging into the unknown.