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New and old wars: organized violence in a global era

At a time when the war in Syria represents the worst refugee crisis since Rwanda and perhaps the Second World War, the third edition of Kaldor’s New and Old Wars appears timely. Indeed there are a myriad of countries, such as Ukraine, Yemen, Pakistan, South Sudan and Somalia, that seem emblematic of the ‘new wars’ proposition Kaldor conceived over a decade ago. As the Syrian state continues to unravel and threatens to engulf the Middle East, many of the debates Kaldor captured in her initial edition of New and Old Wars concerning the character of contemporary war and the merits of intervention are now being debated on the international stage. Although there is acknowledgement that traditional notions of international security and ‘old war’ assumptions fail to address humanitarian crises, and the Responsibility to Protect is now enshrined in international law, there appears to be little consensus on how to derive a political solution and how to protect millions of civilians that continue to be murdered and forcibly displaced in conflicts like Syria. With the third edition of New and Old Wars, Kaldor attempts to extend her earlier debates by addressing some of her critics; refining her ideas about how cosmopolitan law enforcement should be conducted; continues to show how the new wars concept applies to countries outside the West; and argues for greater debate on the demand for a cosmopolitan political response. Kaldor first devised the concept of NewWars in the 1990s, in order to challenge conventional views on how war was framed in the Balkans and the Caucasus in the post-Cold War era. Simultaneously, Kaldor also proposed cosmopolitan law enforcement to explain why it was necessary to intervene to protect ordinary people in a situation of abject violence. Having long been at the centre of major debates in International Relations, Kaldor’s New and Old Wars triggered a mixture of curt criticism, eager curiosity and ardent respect. Some criticized what they viewed as a limited understanding of Clausewitz and an inaccurate interpretation of military history,