Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond

by Michael Ignatieff

Book Overview

For a decade, Michael Ignatieff has provided eyewitness accounts and penetrating analyses from the world's battle zones. In Virtual War, he offers an analysis of the conflict in Kosovo and what it means for the future of warfare. He describes the latest phase in modern combat: war fought by remote control. In "real" war, nations are mobilized, soldiers fight and die, victories are won. In virtual war, however, there is often no formal declaration...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312278357
• ISBN13: 9780312278359
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.4" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

This books presents a very insightful political analysis of the Kosovo conflict ensuring to reflect all sides of the story.

Phenomenal book on the changing nature of warfare

This book, written by a unique and highly knowledgeable military historian and journalist/broadcaster (okay, and a fellow Canadian!), is quite simply one of the most memorable books that I have read. Looking for further information on the Kosovo war, I came across Michael Ignatieff's current masterpiece and found something unlike other books. What is a `Virtual War'? What distinguishes it from traditional `Real Wars'? Simply put, it is the traditional method of warfare, where two (or perhaps more) opponents engage in fighting on battlefields for the sake of securing territory. There are one-on-one confrontations, there is direct killing (justified by self-defense; kill or be killed) and the war is very much a reality to those who fight it, as well as those that work behind the lines to provide the means by which battles can be waged (e.g. armaments and uniform production). Hence, war is a reality in `real wars.' Virtual wars, on the other hand, do not involve such traditional means by which to wage war. In such instances, it is technology that is the backbone of military strength, not personnel. The very word `virtual' is defining of this war: "existing in effect, though not in fact." Those behind the front lines are glued to television screens and press reports; the only sources of information about the wars. Because we see targets within the scopes of missile ranges, we see the effects of aggression. But the location is so far away and beyond the knowledge of the commonplace populace that many of us do not see this as a conflict, or war. We do not know why this war is happening, only that something is happening. All the crushing (and devastating) weaponry spawns from technological innovation that began toward the end of the Cold War, when the US and the USSR could not outdo each other in the production of nuclear arsenal that, logically, could not be used anytime. There was a stalemate in the arms race, and the only way that it could be broken would be through the production and development of conventional weapons that the opponent did not have. As Ignatieff writes: "The beauty of such weapons was that, unlike the nuclear arsenal, they could be used." On impunity: "From the beginning...technology was in search of impunity. War that could actually be fought had to be as bloodless, risk-free and precise as possible." In Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and most recently Kosovo, there was now a technological capability that made a nation like the US strong, as this technology could actually be used. Because of this development and revolutionary change, the battlefield has become obsolete. The nature and enactment of warfare (and the targets) have changed for good. In Kosovo, nerve centers became primary targets of strikes. In the past, it was industrial complexes that were primary targets because they were the bloods behind the war machine, producing military hardware. Now, the nerve centers mentioned are command posts, computer and Internet networks be