Are ‘New Wars' Rational? Symbolic Violence in Israel's Recent Wars

The burgeoning academic literature on new wars is still grounded in the rationalist assumption that wars are a means of achieving material or ideal goals. However, this presentation argues that the new wars of the post-Cold War era of reflexive modernization and globalization are not rational purposively in their episteme but substantively (following Weber’s separation between the two). Accordingly, unlike previous conventional or civil wars, the goal of new wars is not solving problems. Instead, they are symbolic expression of the idea that ethnic, ethno-national, or religious differences should be preserved, and conflicts along these lines are unsolvable. The presentation demonstrates this hypothesis through the case of Israel’s most recent wars.