We often hear that new technologies are revolutionizing warfare. From lethal autonomous weapons to front-line robots, technological breakthroughs are credited with shifting the battlefield as we know it. But how much has war really changed if, as Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz noted, it is merely the continuation of politics by other means?
This edition of Flash Points considers the nature of warfare and strategy, past and present, along with the lessons that older eras of conflict have to offer policymakers in the 21st century.
Soviet infantry in combat during the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Laski Diffusion/Getty Images
The 20th Century’s Lessons for Our New Era of War
Once again, Eurasian autocracies seek to upend the balance of power, Hal Brands writes.
A Ghost Robotic Dog moves forward with U.S. soldiers behind it during an exercise in Fort Irwin, Calif., on March 17, 2024.Spc. Samarion Hicks/U.S. Army
America’s Next Soldiers Will Be Machines
In future wars, U.S. generals want to send robots to face the enemy’s first bullets, Jack Detsch writes.
Viet Cong soldiers go into battle near Hue, in central Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, circa 1968. Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Ghostly Legacies of America’s War in Vietnam
The United States tried to use Vietnamese beliefs to terrify enemy soldiers, Chris Humphrey writes.
Jesse Willis illustration for Foreign Policy/Getty Images
Silicon Valley Hasn’t Revolutionized Warfare—Yet
The Pentagon is warming up to commercial technologies, but it has a long way to go, Sam Winter-Levy writes.
A military operator launches a FlyEye WB Electronics SA, a Polish reconnaissance drone, during test flights in the Kyiv region of Ukraine on Aug. 2, 2022. Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
The Two Biggest Global Trends Are at War
World leaders will have to learn to navigate the contradictions of the new world order, FP’s Stephen M. Walt writes.