The Age of Modern Warfare

[Mister D]

BTW, I sense the influence of a certain myth about the American Revolution here. You know, the British didn't know how to deal with irregular warfare etc.? Of course that's nonsense and the rebel army's inability to face the British in pitched battle proved to be its most significant obstacle to success. Washington army was repeatedly humiliated (i.e. Long Island, Brooklyn, Brandywine) until it learned the "toy soldier" rules.

[Mister D]

Oh and the Middle East, Africa and the Americas all fell to Europeans at least in part because indigenous methods of warfare made them easy marks for highly disciplined, highly aggressive European armies who actively sought pitched battle.

[Peter1469]

The difficulty today is that the enemy fights among the civilian population. And we are conflicted when civilians get dead.

As populations shift into mega cities we will see worse. Much worse.

[Hal Jordan]

That will be the age of the Judges.

[jimmyz]

Will robots surrender to ours one day?
How will the enemy feel any loss when their machinery is put out of operation but their lives preserved?
Will it extend conflicts because the human toll may be negligible. In this scenario will we have to target human enemies, civilian and military, to make the pain of war felt more?

[Mister D]

The difficulty today is that the enemy fights among the civilian population. And we are conflicted when civilians get dead.

As populations shift into mega cities we will see worse. Much worse.

This shift in warfare is old news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula

[Ethereal]

This shift in warfare is old news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula

As a broad concept, that is true. But some of the details are radically different in terms of technology. Electronics, for example, have made improvised explosive devices much more effective and versatile than they were in the past. A simple garage door opener can turn an ordinary explosive into a remotely detonated explosive using some rudimentary physics. That effects the dynamics of counter insurgency very significantly.

[Mister D]

As a broad concept, that is true. But some of the details are radically different in terms of technology. Electronics, for example, have made improvised explosive devices much more effective and versatile than they were in the past. A simple garage door opener can turn an ordinary explosive into a remotely detonated explosive using some rudimentary physics. That effects the dynamics of counter insurgency very significantly.

For sure. Galula wrote this book before we were born but in identifying this general shift he was right and as Victor Davis Hanson remarked in The Western Way of War who would dare meet us in battle?

[Ethereal]

Advancements in technology do not always presage a paradigm shift, but every so often they do. So while the fundamentals of counter-insurgency have been around for a long time, it's worth asking if technology, specifically ubiquitous electronics, has made the age old principles of counter-insurgency somewhat obsolete or, at the very least, in need of a serious updating.

[Ethereal]

For sure. Galula wrote this book before we were born but in identifying this general shift he was right and as Victor Davis Hanson remarked in The Western Way of War who would dare meet us in battle?

I mentioned improvised explosive devices, but I think the advent of commercial drones presages an even bigger shift since it allows insurgent forces to field a rudimentary air force. Check this out.