New Wars and Their Causes and Consequences

New wars apply to ongoing struggles that are happening across the globe that include race and conflict over identity. Unlike the “old wars,” the “modern war” is not targeted at occupying territory or pushing civilians away from their homes. New battles are fought for control of vital life factors such as food and currency superiority, implying that while you have control of the essentials, controlling other citizens becomes simpler. However, some scholars argue that the new wars are still the same as old wars because the earlier times wars such as the Civil War did not concentrate much on the issues of ethnicity or migration tendencies.

Post-modern war has been different from the old war because of the lower number of casualties that are involved. Most of the groups that engage in conflict struggle for recognition, ethnic space, and can cause general insecurity in a country. The war has amounted into a particular form of politics that is brutal in nature. Precisely, a new war is occurring in many nations because of the increasing rate of globalization that has resulted into highly organizes societies (Kaldor, 4). The organizations use the modern war to enhance change in their territory because this acts as a catalyst.

New war comes in the wake of new technologies that various countries are using currently to ensure the stability of their nations. The countries that are less developed cannot access the sophisticated weaponry thus making them have less influence in the new war. The countries that are powerful have invested in modern types of technology that is not open to the public. The design of the conflict remains constant over some time, but its nature depicts a given period that some transition took place.

Another cause of new war, apart from technology, is the ‘information age.’ Access to information has acted as the instigating factor towards the increase of new war in the world. The pattern that it follows is similar to that of the older despite the difference in time. Most countries with a lack of enough information risk state collapse because the few individuals controlling this resource can turn against the leadership and force the country into war. Kaldor (8) observes that new wars take four primary logics in analyzing them for a clearer differentiation with the old wars. The logics include actors, goals, methods, and the forms of finance. New wars mostly take place in the areas that are still developing, and the authorization of the state is weak and that there is little control of the dynamics in the society.

Actors underscore the idea that the old wars involved the use of the armed forces of the country. The difference is that the new wars require the use of various forces such as the private security, paramilitaries, mercenaries, among other non-state actors. The goals indicate that that past war involved geopolitical interests, which is not the case with new wars. The new wars start on the tribal basis when some groups of people feel that their needs as a group are not at stake in the organization. It is essential to note that even the methods of handling war between the two regimes differ because older war used raids and capturing of individuals and taking their land. The changes to this system involve the controlling of the population using a resource or applying politics to have control. Kaldor (3) observes that the source of finance in the older war was from the state through the tax that the citizens paid. New war concentrates with the economic gains to fund activities.

The problem of new wars has solutions too. The first thing to do is to embrace the democratic way of solving conflicts in a state. Democracy addresses conflict because the constitution allows all the ethnic groups to present their candidate in an elective position. The people will feel represented and tone down their animosity. Secondly, wars are dangerous and cause deaths of innocent people in a country such as the Rwanda where there was genocide in one of the disastrous old wars that existed. The new wars cause one-sided violence, which can lead to a more persistent conflict and tear the country apart (Kaldor 10).

New wars are responsible for the displacement of individuals from their homes. Once a person is threatened regarding their security, or when there is the threat of war, people tend to be displaced and look for alternative places to live. The cases of displacement of people have been rampant in the developing nations where residents search for alternatives to war. Additionally, fighting slows down the economic progress of a country because people concentrate on survival instead of working hard. Thus, individuals should work hard to avoid any cases of conflict because it slows down the progress of the country. In conclusion, it is evident that there is an urgent need to address the challenges of war in different states. It is expected that ever war will limit the progress of a country and make it tough to empower the less fortunate in the society (Kaldor 13).

Work Cited

Kaldor, Mary. “In defence of new wars.” Stability: International Journal of Security and Development 2.1 (2013).