The Invisible Enemy in Modern Warfare

Abstract

The author uses the conceptual and methodological apparatus of social constructivism, perspectivism and phenomenology to discuss the phenomenon of the invisible enemy in the context of modern warfare. The concept of the invisible enemy is explicated in the works of Vladimir Solovyov, Lev Karsavin, Ernst Jünger, Fyodor Stepun and other authors. The article substantiates the legitimacy of the semantic expan­sion of this concept and the possibility of its application to a number of objects. It reveals such personifica­ tions of the invisible enemy as a victim and a violent actor, a fighter and an intelligence officer, a collective and an individual subject. The relationship between the traditional identity of the combatant («the killing one – the one to be killed») and the anthropological structure «the seeing one – the visible one», which is being destroyed in modern wars, are also exposed. The inversion of the categories «visible» and «invisible» in the context of military activity is substantiated.