The language of strategy has changed: a traditional, well-defined set of rules has been replaced by a new one in which all is vague. The dividing line between policy and strategy has become shadowy and confusion reigns over the role of nuclear weapons and the use of military intervention.
Strategic uncertainties and political ambiguities
The international order has seldom known the uncertainty that it finds itself in today. The strategies of the major players appear contradictory, and their objectives look ambiguous. It gives the impression, sometimes, that both strategy and policy are giving way to two opposing dynamics: the technological and the emotional.
The revolution in weaponry challenges the vertical hierarchy of power. The revolution in communications challenges the horizontal structuring of territories and political entities. The revolution in mentalities, combined with the first two, has set opposing conceptions of life and death in brutal contact. The multiplication and heterogeneity of players and alliances challenges the rigid distinctions between friend and foe, in favour of complex and ambivalent relationships.
In their turn, the distinctions between war and peace, military and civilian, internal and external, public and private, are called into question.
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