Armed conflict comes in a variety of forms. The author, Rupert Smith, who served as the deputy supreme allied commander of NATO, argues that Napoleon’s way of war—crushing the enemy’s main force—become a paradigm for interstate industrial war but that strategists should not ignore what he calls “war amongst the people.” These are the dozens of conflicts around the world in which combatants live among the civilian population and wage war on behalf of non-state actors or subnational groups. They do not involve armored units, entail struggles to impose competing forms of governance on communities, and seldom end with formal peace treaties. To be effective, a great power must be able to operate both in wars involving main force engagements and those that take place amidst the people.
Guiding Questions
- How does General Smith’s concept of “war amongst the people” challenge the conventional understanding of military victory?
- How does Smith argue that the separation between political objectives and military operations contributes to recent strategic failures?