A total social fact, modern war no longer involves only soldiers but mobilizes all the forces, political, economic, cultural, of nations. It disrupts the classic forms of combat, it pushes violence to its paroxysm.
War today is struggling to define itself. Its forms (clashes between nations, civil conflicts, peacekeeping operations, fights against terrorism, etc.) are numerous. The classic distinctions by which it was understood (war/peace; combatant/civilian; friend/enemy, etc.) are now inoperative. The collective work edited by Bruno Cabanes, A History of the War of XIXe century to the present day (Seuil), recounts these changes. It presents, in four parts, an in-depth picture of the changes that, over the past two centuries, have affected the nature of the fighting, the identity of the conflicts, the collective experience of violence and the way in which we try to end it. It brings together specialists from all over the world and multiplies the perspectives on a phenomenon that has continued to transform and intensify.
Photography: C. Guesde, Editing: A. Suhamy