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The Hubris and Despair of War Journalism

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Political theorist John Keane has dubbed these conflicts "uncivil wars" whose perpetrators practice "violence according to no rules except those of destructiveness itself—of people, property, the infrastructure, places of historical importance, even nature itself . . . Some of today’s conflicts seem to lack any logic or structure except that of murder on an unlimited scale." Mary Kaldor of the London School of Economics has written that these new wars replace "the politics of ideas" with "the politics of identity" and cannot, therefore, be understood in conventional political terms. Kaldor argues that whereas the traditional goal of modern wars, including guerrilla wars and liberation movements, has been to win over native populations and establish a new state, the new warriors seek to sustain chaos, sow "fear and hatred" among their countrymen, perpetuate failed or imploded states, and expel (or murder) civilian populations.