The Risk Society at War: Terror, Technology and Strategy in the Twenty-First Century

The Risk Society at War: Terror, Technology and Strategy in the Twenty-First Century
Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen | 2007-01-15 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 232 | Military
In the globalised world of the twenty-first century, security policy in Western societies is driven by a wish to prevent future threats from becoming reality. Applying theories of 'risk society' to the study of strategy, this book analyses the creation of a new approach to strategy. The author demonstrates that this approach creates new choices for policy-makers and challenges well-established truths within the study of security and strategy. He argues that since the seventeenth century the concept of strategy has served to rationalise new technologies, doctrines and agents. By outlining the history of the concept of strategy in terms of rationality, Rasmussen presents a framework for studying strategy in a time of risk and uses this framework to analyse how new technologies of war, pre-emptive doctrines, globalisation and the rise of the 'terrorist approach to warfare' can formulate a new theory of strategy.
Reviews
In the twenty-first century people in Western societies are more secure than ever in history. But the standards by which we measure our safety have changed in a fundamental way. In The Risk Society at War Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen depicts the emerging dangers in a globalising world. New threatening actors are appearing. Non- state acors with a different set of values and a different rationality are the new kids in town. The Cold War was waged in a rational means-end framework. Technological innovations, new actors seem to challenge the traditional strategic environment of the Western powers. Rasmussen explores in a highly theoretical way this change in warfare. But in the end you have got a fairly good impression of the new doctrines governing the use of armed force. Strategy is no longer a question of definitely defeating the enemy, total victory is not possible. Strategy is about managing risks and acknowledging that eliminating one risk can cause other unexpected boomeranging effects. Rasmussen wrote an illuminating theoretical analysis of modern warfare. You better be aware of it!!





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