Victory in Today's Wars

wrote that a trinity of passion, chance, and political purpose drives the vicissitudes of war.In Carnage & Connectivity, David Betz supports this view.He offers a concise, witty, insightful argument for the proposition "war itself has not changed," though changes in technology have complicated its dynamics.He states his case up front and through his review of literature and evolving military doctrines marshals compelling evidence to support his proposition.As Betz sees it, "quixotically, the major military powers in the West have serially tried and failed to use technology to disconnect from war's enduring nature."They chase solutions using high-tech weaponry that increase the speed at which combat is conducted, but do not affect the forces in Clausewitz's trinity that continue to govern warfare.The consequences can prove costly.They espouse a form of war that largely replaces forces on the ground with force delivered by long-range weapons."Each time," he observes, "all they have managed to grasp is a slow, bitter, indecisive war."One cannot achieve victory, Betz argues, by replacing chance in war with information systems, including weaponized malware (cyber weapons), and passion with long-range weapons and spin and compensating for failures of policy and strategic vision with tactics that avoid contact with the enemy-and, one might add, casualties.Indeed a criticism skeptics level against current US policy is it too often seeks to wage a "bloodless" war through the use of drone and air strikes, rather than with boots on the ground.How bloodless such a war may be depends greatly on whether you sit on the sending or receiving end.Betz skillfully examines how emerging new technologies and a globally connected world have altered warfare.He recognizes the benefits of empowering individuals, but cautions about the darker side.Connectivity provides revolutionary new tools for persuasion.These tools can help articulate a strategic narrative that shapes perceptions, beliefs, and ideals of target audiences, changes behavior, and effects a desired end-state.New technology has altered the capacity of parties to forge and execute strategies, operations, and tactics.What it does not do is change the core truths Clausewitz's trinity embodies.The West may have bigger, more high-tech weapons, but as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated, Betz says, these cannot compensate for the "deficit of passion" that motivates enemies comprised of moderately organized and loosely affiliated non-state groups.For them, while chance may always

Political science · Politics · Victory · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Law

• Parameters – Full Issue – Winter 2016

  USAWC Parameters•The US Army War College Quarterly…•2016

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