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Humanisation of warfare

69 0
14.07.2025

Humanisation of warfare is an interesting subject, and it is in the context of the lack of development of international morality that this subject can be discussed and understood. Currently, conclusions about humanisation of warfare can be drawn from the two ongoing wars — the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, more specifically, the war against the people of Palestine. I outright reject viewing the war in Gaza as a model to draw any conclusions because it is as inhuman as any war can get, and it is not even a war but a genocide and a deliberate extermination of unarmed and innocent people at a scale that the modern world has not seen before.

History remembers the 16th and 17th century wars as religious wars; the 18th century wars as dynastic wars, and the 19th and 20th century wars as national wars. Following 9/11, Samuel P Huntington's theory of the clash of civilisations was validated, and if anything, the 21st century has been a century of civilisational wars. Today, the war is not about the unconditional surrender of a state but the death of all those who adhere to a different ideal, a different way of life, false and evil in the eyes of the West. Today's war is not about the territory; it is about the people.

Understanding the world view of the other two great powers can help us understand these push-button wars being fought in the 21st century that continue to lead to dehumanising the world. In an anarchic international system where no two states can be certain about each other's intentions, there has to be a method to ensure that the relations between them........

© The Express Tribune