Review: The Contemporary Mode of Warfare? Mary Kaldor's Theory of New Wars

This journal article discusses  three books on the contested concept of the "New War" by political scientist Mary Kaldor: New Wars. Restructuring the Global Military Sector by Mary Kaldor and Basker Vashee (London: Pinter, 1997); The End of Military Fordism by Mary Kaldor, Ulrich Albrecht, Geneviève Schméder (London: Pinter, 1998); and New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999) by Mary Kaldor. Kaldor is a recognized expert theorist of war and is a foremost authority on "new wars". Her core argument is introduced in the 1997 book New Wars. Restructuring the Global Military Sector. Kaldor examines the politics of "new wars" and "the globalized war economy". These books provide a comprehensive, illuminating analysis yet of the most widespread contemporary forms of war. They are informed by a political-economic approach -- indeed they were presented at the 1998 RIPE Sussex conference - and establish Mary Kaldor, long one of the most important theorists of war, as the foremost authority on 'new wars'. Her core argument, outlined first in the introduction to New Wars, is developed considerably in New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era  the fullest statement and principal basis of this discussion.