Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780198972365)

The field of Strategic Studies, which studies the use and threat of force for political purposes, has seen the repeated rise of concepts to dominate discourses and research agendas, only to eventually fall to the margins again. What explains this cyclical pattern? What are the consequences for our understanding of war?

Reconceptualizing War examines these questions by likening the coming and going of theories to fashions. While in vogue, fashionable concepts are used widely, becoming broader and vaguer until essentially stripped of meaning. At the same time, they are bestowed with authority and power that allows them to withstand criticism and marginalizes alternative perspectives. These characteristics severely affect the quality, depth, and diversity of research by narrowing and siloing the field of inquiry.

Tracing three concepts--revolution in military affairs, counterinsurgency, and hybrid warfare--through their fashion lifecycle, Chiara Libiseller demonstrates how fashionability affects the concepts themselves, related research, and the field more generally. Embedded within a discussion of the history and dynamics of Strategic Studies, the book calls for more reflexivity in the study of war and strategy.

Author: Chiara Libiseller
ISBN-10: 0198972369
ISBN-13: 9780198972365
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/19/2026
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover