The New Aztecs: Ritual and Restraint in Contemporary Western Military Operations

The idea that the military environment is con¬stantly evolving, becoming more and more dangerous and technologically sophisticated, is a common one. In the past century, we have seen the emergence of to¬tal war, nuclear weapons, and bloody unconventional and asymmetric campaigns. We have used many of the offshoots of this evolutionary idea to guide our own setting of defense policy, seeing in the evolution a constant escalation, albeit one perhaps marred by occasional yet small oscillations. In an earlier monograph, Slowing Military Change, Dr. Zhivan Alach questioned whether or not we are indeed in an era of rapidly evolving military technol¬ogy. In this monograph, he takes an even longer view, examining the scope of military history from the an¬cient to the present day and comparing the character¬istics of the various eras within the situation today. He argues that, for the most part, there has been a steady escalation from primitive, indirect, low-casualty con¬flict to the massive total wars of the 20th century. However, from that time the momentum has changed. Instead of a new era of war, Dr. Alach argues that we have returned to something akin to primitive warfare, with ritual and restraint now as important as what might be seen as objective standards of mili¬tary success. He argues that Western popular culture, the news media, and democracy have all prevented militaries from fighting in an unrestrained manner. Another factor for such restraint has been a decline in the perceived utility of war in the absence of credible threats. The monograph raises some interesting questions. What are the implications of this return to ritual and restraint? Has the West blinded itself to the realities of war? What if some foe emerges that is not restrained by such niceties of civilization? In the setting of strate¬gic policy, all of these questions need to be answered, and the true value of this monograph is in bringing them to light.