Rimsha Malik
When war is mentioned in the minds of people, they tend to imagine armies in uniforms, front lines, and decisive battles. However, this is hardly how modern warfare appears. Modern war can be conducted in various forms, including a distant attack on a city’s power grid using a computer, a mercenary group acquiring military assets in a failed nation, or an anonymous, undercover cyber attack. No statements or armies on the march, but the consequences can be felt: institutions are undermined, infrastructure is destroyed, and civilians are victims. The war of the present day has shifted out of the battlefield and is conducted via networks, proxies and deniability.
In this article, I will discuss the transforming nature of warfare and why our international institutions and legal frameworks are struggling to keep pace. In order to see how war is changing, we have to first look at the structure we inherited which still has an implication on international law, military organization, and world political norms. Closest to this classical conception is the work of Carl von Clausewitz, who viewed war as a political instrument that is used when diplomacy has failed. According to this model, war is a state-centered rational action that is directed to attain specific political objectives.
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