ABSTRACT
War has become mainly a feature of the developing world. 1 In order to analyse and explain these wars, several concepts have been prominently used. One of those concepts has been irregular warfare, which stresses factors such as indirect fighting techniques and low technology weaponry. Another recently used label is chaos and barbarity, to describe what has been going on in such diverse conflict theatres as the Balkans and the Horn of Africa. The concept of conventional war has without much consideration been marginalised and sometimes even neglected as a concept for analysis, in particular in wars occurring in collapsed states. This is not to suggest that conventional wars have not been fought in the developing world. This is clearly not the case. One only has to think, as an example, of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, in which the warring parties used trench warfare. The arguments in this chapter will show the much wider relevance of the conventional war concept.
