Is war becoming liquid? Consequences of the proliferation of modern military technology for the warfare of autocratic states and non-state armed groups

• Applicant: Dr. Max Mutschler
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441237472

The project 'On the road to liquid warfare?', which has been running since October 2020 and has been approved for three years, examines how the proliferation of modern military technology for warfare at a distance - e.g. ballistic missiles, precision bombs and drones - transforms the warfare of autocratic states and non-state armed groups. Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman's reflections on the loss of meaning of territory in 'liquid modernity', the project has developed a typology of solid (territorially-focused) and liquid (target-focused) warfare, and has examined in particular the warfare of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the Huthi and the Islamic State (IS). As an important first result, the project has already been able to show that - contrary to the predominant association in the literature of warfare from a distance with democratic (mostly Western) states - the highly autocratic Gulf monarchy of Saudi Arabia and the Huthi in Yemen rely on practices of liquid warfare, too. The continuation project requested here extends the basic research question 'how does the proliferation of modern military technology for warfare at a distance change the spatial dimension of warfare by authoritarian states?' to three additional states: a) Russia; b) Turkey; and c) China. This will put the insights gained in the project on a broader empirical basis so that conclusions can be drawn about the scope of the thesis of the ‘liquidisation’ of autocratic warfare. The central results of the continuation project will be published in the form of an article in a peer-reviewed English-language journal as part of a special issue on the topic of ‘autocratic warfare’.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants