Risf-transfer Militarism and the Legitimacy of War after Iraq

Abstract

According to Martin Shaw, the 21st century has experienced the development of what he calls ‘risk-transfer militarism.’ This term refers to a new strategy of the Western countries whereby they reduce the political costs for military interventions by transferring their risks to the non-western enemies, explaining how this tactic has been applied to the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. This strategy is characterized by increased death toll of the enemy forces, the participation of local allies that assume the main risks, the small massacres of civilians, the control of the media, and the existence of indirect civilian deaths. As a result, the author concludes that the resurgence of Just Wars is accompanied by new ways to discredit armed conflicts and to justify historical pacifism.