Strength & Honor: The Quest for ‘Sustainable Security’
Lieutenant Colonel Isaiah Wilson III, PhD, U.S. Army
This paper is a futures piece and as such an exploration in “heresy.” This paper
reconsiders what we have come to regard as the modern-age of war and consider a new
alternative future of war and peace. The specific analytical focus attempts to go beyond the
popular contemporary descriptions of the paradox within the American way of war (the
tendency to fail to win the peace in spite of unmatched prowess at winning the battles in our
war-fare) and even beyond the debates over whether or not we are witnessing and
experiencing a new era of Fourth-Generation War-fare (4GW). The analysis centers on the
how of contemporary US/Western intervention practices, as a tool of national and
‘Westphalian’ intervention policy and strategies particularly relating to issues of security,
and in the reflection of what can be seen in our manner of intervention (how we tend to
wage war and wage peace) what we can learn about ourselves in terms of how we “see”
war and war-fare and differentiate these concepts and practices from how we have
traditionally tended to view peace – and participate in peace operations (peace-fare). The
theoretical apparatus that allows for this sort of reconsideration goes well beyond traditional
modern-era realists approaches and explanations to international affairs (which seek
answers to the question of why nations conflict and cooperate through the lens of material-
based power political relationships) toward critical theory apparatuses – specifically,
constructivism. Constructivism allows one to consider – reconsider – the standing notions
of war and peace (war-fare and peace-fare) in a dynamic and humanist way . . . as a
creation of man, and therefore malleable and reflective of any particular given time and
place in world affairs and human history. In short, this constructivist examination allows the
author to propose that War . . . and Peace, at any given time and place is a sign of the
times. As such, the essential question – the prior even to the important question of whether
or not we today live in an era of 4
th
Generation War-fare – is the question of whether our
current understandings of what constitutes a state, condition or act of “war” versus peace is
an accurate and healthy sign of the contemporary times?
The Essential Question ~ How to Achieve a ‘Viable Peace’ through Intervention
Getting at this essential question forces one – as a student and as a practitioner of war and
peace – to think beyond the modern-age focuses on the instrumentality of war-fare and
peace-fare and more toward the purpose of war and war-fare. Refocusing on purpose as a
prior to a consideration of tasks, it is hypothesized in this paper, rightly-aligns our thoughts
and new practices toward both war and peace in this new century – new thoughts and
practices that the author proposes will more effectively and legitimately reflect the
challenges and opportunities of the contemporary environment of conduct.
