Postmodern Counterinsurgency: the War of our Times and the Strategy of the Resistance

The so called 'war of our times' has adopted the format of a postmodernist counterinsurgency, namely the irregular, civil, asymmetric, protracted conflict in which resistance proves to be the most significant value to avoid defeat in a world dominated by perceptions. The postmodern character of this type of conflicts has brought about a 'contradictio in terminis' as it breaks up the delicate 'continuum' between war and politics described by Clausewitz, that has historically shaped the international relations. Postmodernity imports dynamics from markets to warfare, substitutes victory by success and make tangible military effects almost impossible to align with the political realm, that is fuelled with sociological and epistemological perceptions. The failure of the two big wars of this kind in the 21st Century suggests that Western governments have been 'vaccinated' against any similar temptation for a long time ahead.