Abstract:

The nature of warfare, its causes and results have always been one of the main interest areas of the international relations. This study argues that in the post-September 11 era a fundamental shift in the doctrine, organization, training and way of fighting of modern armies has taken place due to the change in the nature of warfare. It emphasizes that modern militaries of the world have, dramatically, been reviewing their traditional approaches to the definition and conduct of warfare to meet effectively the asymmetric and unconventional threats that have loomed in the contemporary security environment. The general aim of this study, which refers to this new way warfare as “fourth generation warfare”, is to lay out the problems of modern militaries as parallel to the changing threat perceptions as well as attempting to indicate the necessary structural reforms they should fulfill. 

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