Robert Johnson - The Conduct of War in the 21st Century: Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic

This book examines the key dimensions of 21st century war, and shows that orthodox thinking about war, particularly what it is and how it is fought, needs to be updated.

Accelerating societal, economic, political and technological change affects how we prepare, equip and organise for war, as well as how we conduct war both in its low-tech and high-tech forms, and whether it is with high intensity or low intensity. The volume examines changes in warfare by investigating the key features of the conduct of war during the first decades of the 21st century. Conceptually centred around the terms kinetic, connected and synthetic, the analysis delves into a wide range of topics. The contributions discuss hybrid warfare, cyber and influence activities, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the use of armed drones and air power, the implications of the counterinsurgency experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, as well as the consequences for law(fare) and decision making.

This work will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, security studies and International Relations.

Rob Johnson is the Director of the Changing Character of War Research Centre at the University of Oxford, UK.

Martijn Kitzen is Associate Professor at the Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda.

Tim Sweijs is the Director of Research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Defence Academy.

First published 2021

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2021 selection and editorial matter, Rob Johnson, Martijn Kitzen and Tim Sweijs; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Rob Johnson, Martijn Kitzen and Tim Sweijs to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Johnson, Robert, 1967 editor. | Kitzen, Martijn, 1978 editor. | Sweijs, Tim, 1981 editor.

Title: The conduct of war in the 21st century : kinetic, connected and synthetic / edited by Rob Johnson, Martijn Kitzen, Tim Sweijs.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge advances in defence studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020041183 (print) | LCCN 2020041184 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367515249 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003054269 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: WarHistory21st century. | Military art and scienceHistory21st century.

Classification: LCC U21.2 .C6445 2021 (print) | LCC U21.2 (ebook) | DDC 355.02dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041183

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041184

ISBN: 978-0-367-51524-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05426-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra

Routledge Advances in Defence Studies is a multi-disciplinary series examining innovations, disruptions, counter-culture histories, and unconventional approaches to understanding contemporary forms, challenges, logics, frameworks, and technologies of national defence. This is the first series explicitly dedicated to examining the impact of radical change on national security and the construction of theoretical and imagined disruptions to existing structures, practices, and behaviours in the defence community of practice. The purpose of this series is to establish a first-class intellectual home for conceptually challenging and empirically authoritative studies that offer insight, clarity, and sustained focus.

Series editors: Timothy Clack, University of Oxford, UK, and Oliver Lewis Rebellion Defence and University of Southern California, USA

Advisory Board: Tarak Barkawi London School of Economics, UK Richard Barrons Global Strategy Forum, UK Kari Bingen-Tytler Georgetown University, USA Ori Brafman University of California, Berkeley, USA Tom Copinger-Symes British Army, UK Karen Gibsen Purdue University, USA David Gioe West Point, USA Rob Johnson Oxford University, UK Mara Karlin John Hopkins University, USA Tony King Warwick University, UK Andrew Sharpe Centre for Historical and Conflict Research, UK Suzanne Raine Cambridge University, UK

The Conduct of War in the 21st Century
Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic
Edited by Rob Johnson, Martijn Kitzen and Tim Sweijs

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Defence-Studies/book-series/RAIDS

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Yakov Ben-Haim initiated and developed info-gap decision theory for modelling and managing severe uncertainty. Info-gap theory is a decision-support tool, providing a methodology for assisting in assessment and selection of policy, strategy, action, or decision in a wide range of disciplines. Info-gap theory has impacted the fundamental understanding of uncertainty in human affairs, and is applied in decision making by scholars and practitioners around the world in engineering, biological conservation, economics, project management, climate change, natural hazard response, national security, medicine and other areas (see info-gap.com). He has been a visiting scholar in many countries and has lectured at universities, technological and medical research institutions, public utilities and central banks. He has published more than 100 articles and six books. He is a professor of mechanical engineering and holds the Yitzhak Moda'i Chair in Technology and Economics at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Dave Blair is Commander of the 65th Special Operations Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida. He is an Evaluator Pilot in the MQ-9 Reaper and the MQ-1 Predator, and an AC-130 Pilot, with combat experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and the Horn of Africa. Previously, he served as the Senior SOF Aviation Policy Advisor at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A graduate of the US Air Force Academy, he holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Doctorate from Georgetown University, where he studied dark networks. He writes on strategy, technology, leadership, the Royal Navys suppression of the Atlantic slave trade, the US Coast Guard during Prohibition, and combatting modern-day slavery.

Bart van den Bosch is a Colonel in the Royal Netherlands Army with operational experience from multiple deployments for both United Nations and NATO. He holds a Masters degree in Law and Public Administration as well as a PhD in Law (on the subject of International Humanitarian Law in cyberspace). He currently serves as an associate professor in military law at the Netherlands Defence Academy.