ABSTRACT
Violence is a predominant code written in the protocols of modern war. Since the beginning of the 21st century, it has left an ever-increasing footprint in contemporary politics, both in its domestic and international dimensions. This chapter offers a critical assessment of dominant 21st century concepts of violence and warfare. Hybrid wars are 'actor-centred', they have increasingly sought to institutionalise inter-personal and group conflicts in diverse societies, combining structural and organisational traits of pre-modern communities and the postmodern hyper-connected world. Post-asymmetric warfare implies the appearance in the arena of confrontation of agile, self-organising heterarchical forces aiming at the reproduction of elements of tactical and operational art intercepted from the state. A concept of postmodern warfare is introduced and elaborated in order to highlight singularities of war and conflict in the complex global-networked environment. The emergence of the postmodern warfare concept has also been determined by the 'de-Westernisation' of strategic studies and military thought.
