'The Changing Character of War' unites scholars from the disciplines of history, politics, law and philosophy to ask in what ways the character of war today has changed from war in the past and how the wars of today differ from each other.

Originally published: 2011.

Introduction : the changing character of war /Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers -- The changing character of war / Azar Gat -- Had a distinct template for a 'Western way of war' been established before 1800? / David Parrott -- Changes in war : the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars / Michael Broers -- The change from within / Gil-li Vardi -- 'Killing is easy' : the atomic bomb and the temptation of terror / Gerard J. DeGroot -- The 'new wars' thesis revisited / Mats Berdal -- What is really changing? change and continuity in global terrorism / Audrey Kurth Cronin -- Why go to War? / The purpose of war -- Humanitarian intervention / David J.B. Trim -- Democracy and war in the strategic thought of Giulio Douhet / Thomas Hippler -- Religion in the War on Terror / Alia Brahimi -- The changing character of civil wars, 1800-2009 / Stathis N. Kalyvas -- Crime versus war / William Reno -- Who fights? / The changing identities of combatants -- War without the people / Pascal Vennesson -- The changing character of private force / Sarah Percy -- Who fights? A comparative demographic depiction of terrorists and insurgents in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries / Bruce Hoffman -- Warlords / Kimberly Marten -- The European Union, multilateralism, and the use of force / Anne Deighton -- Robots at war : the new battlefield / Peter W. Singer -- The civilian in modern war / Adam Roberts -- Killing civilians / Uwe Steinhoff -- The status and protections of prisoners of war and detainees / Sibylle Scheipers -- The challenge of the child soldier / Guy S. Goodwin-Gill -- American strategic culture : problems and prospects / Antulio J Echevarria II -- Morality and law in war / David Rodin -- Target-selection norms, torture norms, and growing US permissiveness / Henry Shue -- The return of realism? War and changing concepts of the political / Patricia Owens -- Strategy in the twenty-first century / Hew Strachan -- Conclusion : absent war studies? War, knowledge, and critique / Tarak Barkawi and Shane Brighton.