Humane Warfare

In its attempt to humanise modernity the West is also trying to humanize war. It is trying to purge it of those features such as waste and cruelty which writers such as Clausewitz believed to be intrinsic to true nature. The decision, as in Kosovo, to fight "humanitarian wars" is one illustration of this trend but so too is our wish to use technology to make it more humane, and the extent to which humanism ahs displaced metaphysics in defining the ethical relationship between war and warrior. The book asks whether the attempt can succeed or whether the West is deluding itself (not its enemies) in thinking that war can ever be made "humane".

Table of Contents:
1. HUMANISING WAR: Surfing the Zeitgeist - Irony and War - Humanising Modernity - Humanising War 2. WAR AND THE DENUNCIATION OF CRUELTY: The American Century and the will to power - Into the Slaughterhouse - Judith Shklar and cruelty 3. THE REDUNDANCY OF COURAGE: Machiavelli and the virtuous state - Hegel and war as a vocation - Nietzsche and the masses as a military caste - The end of the virtuous state - The Risk Society - Risk Aversive War - Stress-Free War 4. WAR WITHOUT HATRED: Why no enemies? - Post Materialist War - Uncivil Society - The Feminisation of Society - Non-lethal warfare 5. THE HUMANE WARRIOR: Counter Culture - Post Military Society - Post Tradition Military - The Feminisation of the Military 6. ZONING THE PLANET: Keeping the peace - An Insecure World - The Humanitarian military ethos - Humanitarian imperialism? - Humanitarian War and the loss of metaphysics 7. HUMANE WAR AND THE MORAL IMAGINATION: Lin Yutang and humanised thinking - Richard Rorty and the end of metaphysics - History as a metaphysical principle - War and sacrifice in an ironic world 8. CONCLUSION: Humanism and War - Humanity and War - Humanitarian Wars

Review :
'In this challenging work, Chris Coker tackles directly one of the fundamental dilemmas facing the West today; how to reconcile the inhumanity of war with the desire to fight a humane war. The result is both fascinating and provocative. Essential reading.' - Colin McInnes, University of Wales Aberystwyth 'Christopher Coker has written a masterful analysis... a book of deep understanding and real insight. Literate, witty and subversive, this book is a pleasure to read the first time, and a discomfiture thereafter. Liberating and disturbing in equal measure, it is difficult to read this book without being changed by it.' - Michael Clarke, Director, Centre for Defence Studies, King's College London 'Christopher Coker has produced a typically rich and thought provoking book that forces us to think again, not just about the nature of war and organised violence in early 21st century, but about the mental assumptions that govern our thinking about these subjects. It deserves to be widely read.' - Mats Berdal, Director of Studies, The International Institute for Strategic Studies"