Hiroyuki Tosa (Kobe University)
Title:  New Wars? 　The Cognitive Turn and Its Implications.

Summary:

The concept of ‘new wars’, which is often used for the explanation about the armed conflicts after the end of the Cold War, is now influential. What’s new with recent wars? Some scholars including Mary Kaldor emphasize the qualitative changes in the nature of armed conflicts. First, they observe savage, irrational and criminal aspects of recent intra-states conflicts that looked nothing like the traditional inter-states warfare. As many non-state actors irregularly involve in the warfare, the number of civilians killed and displaced in wars tends to be increasing and the human rights abuses are quite often. Second, the purpose of wars is also irrational and is motivated by exclusionary identity politics based upon hatred and greed. It makes a sharp contrast with the modern warfare of which purpose is clearly defined in terms of geo-political or ideological aspects. Third, the recent wars are propelled by global and illegal war economy. Actors involving in plunder, kidnapping, or smuggling are financing war. However other scholars point out that this kind of  ‘new wars’ scholarship tends to ignore the continuities of unconventional wars in the Third World and over-emphasizes their criminal aspects to de-politicize political insurgencies and to legitimize ‘good wars’ against evils. Here we want to examine some problems with the recent ‘new wars’ scholarship and the implications of its cognitive turn with regard to armed conflicts.