ABSTRACT
Introduction The role of language that governments employ during a conflict has received only marginal attention in the war studies literature, primarily in the study of propaganda, and the discourses used inside military systems have received almost none. This chapter will address two questions. First, is there a relationship between the way a conflict is characterised and the way that conflict is waged? Second, can the language chosen by defence policymakers in their internal discourse to label a conflict explain suboptimal military outcomes? By examining the genealogy of a set of terms used inside the US military during the first three-and-a-half years of the Iraq conflict, this chapter will demonstrate the importance of language, and specifically conflict characterisations, as they relate to the waging of conflict.
