The modern way of war maximizes military-industrial prestige, power, and profits. From Lorenzo Maria Pacini at strategic-culture.org:
The change of course in the style of global conflicts has already brought us to a condition of permanent war under a new perceptive guise.
The coordinates of low intensity conflicts
According to Western doctrine, a low intensity conflict is an armed conflict characterized by the limited and selective use of military force, hybridized with other strategic sectors and disciplines. These types of conflicts are situated between war and peace, involving a number of state and non-state actors in prolonged clashes that never reach the intensity of total war, but are nevertheless devastating and long-lasting for all parties involved.
This definition has its origins in the 70s, when the English General Frank Kitson, an expert in counterinsurgency, studied the methods to adopt in response to unconventional threats. The concept then became successful in the USA, and from 1986 became part of the common doctrine of the Atlantic Alliance.
The main characteristics of this type of conflict are:
- Limited use of force
- Prolonged duration
- Involvement of non-state actors
- Political and legal ambiguity
- Involvement of the civilian population
This has interesting strategic implications. Counterinsurgency operations, for example, involve a high level of infiltration into the social fabric of the areas involved; psychological warfare becomes central, along with information warfare, to prepare the psychological terrain and re-elaborate events; civil-military cooperation takes on a fundamental role of integration and assistance.
Traditionally, the intensity of a conflict is measured by analyzing the level of violence and the use of force, the geographical area involved, the number of actors involved, the duration of the conflict and the social and political impact. The analysis of these elements allows a classification to be drawn up.
The success in adopting LICs (Law Intensity Conflict) is also due to the profound ambiguity they create in terms of international law. There is in fact a problem: the lack of a formal declaration of war and the presence of non-state actors complicate the application of humanitarian norms. The Geneva Conventions are losing ground. Clearly, the protection of civilians is becoming very complicated, as is the recognition of responsibility for events.
