How the Terrorist Attacks of 2001 Have Signalled a Fundamental Change in the Nature of Conflict

There are still fundamental questions to be answered on the nature of conflict post-9/11 and our existing understanding of war must be reassessed.

In this ninth year of the epoch-defining conflict which for most Americans began on 11 September 2001, fundamental strategic questions remain unanswered. What is the nature of the enemy? Is it an organisation, network, movement or ideology? What are the long-term objectives of this enemy? Does it have a Clausewitzian centre of gravity? Should we even use the term enemy, or should the vast resources that Washington dedicates to national security be spent instead on ameliorating the ‘upstream factors’ underlying violent extremism (to quote a phrase used by a close advisor to President Barack Obama)? This paper attempts to answer some of these questions and explain why our existing understanding of war’s nature must be reassessed.