ABSTRACT

Introduction War remains war, but over time the character of war can change quite radically. A comparison of World War II, Vietnam, the Gulf War and OIF illustrates the potential magnitude of such change.2 Indeed, war’s character may change over the course of the same conflict. For example, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in 2003 and in 2007 were two very different campaigns. An interesting question is that of how and why the character of war evolves. There are real practical benefits to answering this question: if one knew how the character of war would evolve, one could make better decisions about how best to fight a war or what to prepare for in the next war. Of course, such insights are particularly valuable when confronting new enemies.