The Mutable Nature of War

Abstract

The third chapter was written after listening to several ground officers and historians argue that the nature of war was unchanging and immutable. One stated that war as experienced by an ancient Greek hoplite was the same as for any soldier today in Iraq or Afghanistan. That statement bears examination. Such attitudes are almost always expressed by those who know only of land warfare—which they equate to war in general. For sailors, aviators, space or cyber warfare practitioners, the experience of war is fundamentally different, especially today. New methods, but also old ones too often ignored, clearly demonstrate that war is indeed mutable.