Kaldor's Conflict Theory Analysis

One of these is explaining why the term ‘conflict’ was not appropriate. The reason is that ‘conflict’ is endemic to society. They are needed for making changes and adaptations in the society. Moreover, democracy provides constructive way of resolving conflict. However, Kaldor agrees that there are advantages in not using the word war, as using it may legitimate certain types of violence such as the ones related to drug wars that should not be considered as wars but as crimes. As having the status of war implies having some kind of political objectives and it legitimizes the cause even if the participants are only criminals. As a matter of fact, by using another word than war it introduces solutions that are not mainly military or political

Indeed, this theory could shed light on the persistence of conflicts, providing a theoretical framework to explain what other authors had not managed to do convincingly. As aforementioned in the paper, Kaldor’s concluded that we are witnessing a shift away from the Clausewitzian, ideologically motivated old wars as ‘contest of wills’ towards a mode of conflict which may be increasingly likened to a form of ‘mutual enterprise’ in which the conflict actors have a vested interest in ensuring the continuation of hostilities. This part of her theory can be applied to show one of the reasons why the Afghanistan war is so

For ‘New Wars’ theorists, modern conflicts have a series of important similarities, which at the same time are different from traditional conflict therefore; a categorization of identifiable variables could be constructed. More precisely, by describing the characteristics of these new forms of violence, it intends to create a common theory of why wars are developing the way they are doing now and how does this development takes place. Indeed in her thesis she punctuates how in the ‘New Wars’ actors, objectives, finances and tactics are not anymore the ones that use to be found in ‘Old Wars’. The dichotomy between traditional wars and contemporary wars is the core subject of this work. With this conceptualization, Kaldor has brought a new way of thinking about war and opened up more possibilities for the theorization and comprehension of wars.

Kaldor’s concept of ‘New Wars’ is very relevant to the International Relations field and specially the human security approach as she has not been only stimulated a theoretical debate among scholars but has also had a tangible effect in practical aspects, such as the European Union’s indirect adoption of the human security approach (which has been influenced by the new wars