In May 2004, at a ceremony in Grozny commemorating victory over Nazi Germany, an explosion ripped through the main stands, killing Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow loyalist Chechen President. One could argue that this meticulously planned assassination was part of a conflict very different in its roots, reasons, rationale, and even results from the war whose end was being observed that day. World War Two was a ‘modern’ war pitting state against state with territory and power as the key factors. Conversely, the war in Chechnya that began in 1994 – half a century after Germany's defeat – has been identified as a postmodern or ‘new’ war, in an era of globalization in which traditional notions of power, space and conflict seem not to apply. But are wars changing so radically? In this chapter we deal with two central concepts: ‘globalization’ and ‘new wars’. The first has become a cliché and suffers from multiple and unworkable (indeed, sometimes contradictory) definitions. The second is more recent. Its adherents claim that ‘new wars’ differ from earlier low-intensity conflicts and guerrilla warfare. We deal with these concepts together because those that have developed ideas on new wars explain them with reference to processes of globalization.

A variety of theories assert that we have entered a new era, one in which modernist notions of violent conflict between political communities are moribund.