Contemporary war mirrors nomadic raiding, not territorial conquest.

Evidence

Wars of the globalization era therefore aim to force the enemy into submission regardless of the immediate consequences, side effects, and “collateral damage” of the military actions. In this sense, contemporary wars are more reminiscent of the warfare strategy of the nomads than of the sedentary nations or the “conquer-andannex” territorial wars of modernity. In Bauman’s words: “They rest their superiority over the settled population on the speed of their own movement; their own ability to descend from nowhere without notice and vanish again without warning, their ability to travel light and not to bother with the kind of belongings which con- fine the mobility and the maneuvering potential of the sedentary people.” — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 121

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s scaffolding on biopolitics/necropolitics and how modern violence diverges from state-territorial logic, and to Deleuze/Guattari’s nomadology. — connects to: The overall balance of forces imposes the form of war

Broader Connections

• The overall balance of forces imposes the form of war #expands (0.72)