Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorBuchan, B
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-03T14:24:46Z
dc.date.available2017-05-03T14:24:46Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.date.modified2014-08-28T22:15:57Z
dc.identifier.issn1749-6977
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/17496977.2012.723338
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/48582
dc.description.abstractDuring the Enlightenment period a certain notion of war came to prominence in European thought. This notion, which I here refer to as 'civilized war', centred on the idea that European war-making in the eighteenth century was characterised by humanity and honour. This image of European war-making was sustained by a variety of intellectuals and even some military practitioners who reflected not only on the practice of war in Europe in this period, but on the practice of war among supposedly less 'civilised' peoples in other parts of the world and in Europe's barbaric past. In these other places, among other peoples, and at other times, warfare was characterised as altogether less 'civilised', less ordered, less humane and honourable, and was thus considered more 'savage'. I will argue in this paper, however, that there were at least two dimensions to the Enlightenment discourse on civilised war: the first dimension stressed the moral qualities of civilised war, its honour and humanity above all; the second dimension emphasised its technical or rational qualities that gave European war-makers a decisive military advantage over non-European war-makers. These two dimensions applied to conventional or symmetrical war between sovereign militaries contending by massed fire power on the field of battle. They were less easily applicable to petite guerre, that is, unconventional, asymmetric or partisan war. Here, the two dimensions of the idea of civilised war were shadowed by persistent anxieties about the status of both dimensions of civilised war.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.description.publicationstatusYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherRoutledge
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom
dc.relation.ispartofstudentpublicationN
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom329
dc.relation.ispartofpageto347
dc.relation.ispartofissue3
dc.relation.ispartofjournalIntellectual History Review
dc.relation.ispartofvolume23
dc.rights.retentionY
dc.subject.fieldofresearchHistorical studies
dc.subject.fieldofresearchHistorical studies not elsewhere classified
dc.subject.fieldofresearchHistory and philosophy of specific fields
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4303
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode430399
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode5002
dc.titlePandours, Partisans, and Petite Guerre : Two Dimensions of Enlightenment Discourse on War
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
gro.facultyArts, Education & Law Group, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences
gro.date.issued2012
gro.hasfulltextNo Full Text
gro.griffith.authorBuchan, Bruce A.


Files in this item

FilesSizeFormatView

There are no files associated with this item.

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

  • Journal articles
    Contains articles published by Griffith authors in scholarly journals.

Show simple item record