ABSTRACT
In this high-technology age of cruise missiles, satellite-guided bombs and depleted-uranium tank shells,1 surprisingly, given the limitations of the flesh, people are still the most important elements in warfare. Apart from the former stemming from the imagination of the latter, the art of war remains the realm of specialists in global society. The effects of fighting may influence millions but the warrior in whatever guise (soldier, guerrilla, terrorist) represents a minority occupation in the twenty-first century.2 These individuals have joined a profession in which the fundamental purpose is to apply violence (often lethal) to achieve political ends.3 Like all employment, the career span of a warrior is limited by age, with few exceeding more than forty years, but unlike in most other occupations, warriors may never practise their skills. War is a haphazard event in international relations not only in terms of occurrence but also duration. In extended times of peace, some military specialists will never hear the sound of battle whereas others will always live under the shadow of the sword. Regardless of circumstances, the profession of arms continues whether in peace or war and it produces a certain type of global citizen who is attuned to a different environment to that which the majority of society takes for granted.
