conditions for modern war

Since warefare, and the credible threat of resorting to it, is still at the core of state power, since the end of the Vietnam war strategists have been busy finding ways still to make war. Only under this condition can economic, technological, and demographic power be translated into domination over other states, the oldest game in humankind. Three conclusions were rapidly reached in advanced, democratic countries, regarding the conditions necessary to make war somewhat acceptable to society:

1. It should not involve common citizens, thus being enacted by a professional army, so that the mandatory draft should be reserved for truly exceptional circumstances, perceived as unlikely.

2. It should be short, even instantaneous, so that the consequences would not linger on, draining human and economic resources, and raising questions about the justification for military action.

3. It shold be clean, surgical, with destruction, even of the enemy, kept within reasonable limits and as hidden as possible from public view, with the consequence of linking closely information-handling, image-making, and war-making.

Dramatic breakthroughs in military technology in the last two decadres provided the tools to implement this socio-military strategy. Well-trained, well-equipped, full-time, professional armed forces do not require the involvement of the population at large in the war effort, except for viewing and cheering from their living rooms a particularly exciting sho, punctuated with deep patriotic feelings.

-- Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society