New Wars and State Building - A case study on the changed dynamics in New Wars and how it can affect state building in Syria

Abstract: The experience drawn from the wars in the early modern era in Europe suggest that interstate wars lead to centralization of power and resources. These wars are also strongly associated with state building and were a crucial component in the formation of the modern state. Though another dynamic can be perceived in contemporary warfare. The wars we see today differ in actors, motives, methods of warfare and the way they are financed. The New War theory challenges the dominating Clausewitzean perception of war and argues for a fundamental change in the logic of wars and shows that contemporary wars have to be understood in the context of globalization. Tendencies of new war can be seen in the Syrian war. This study examines how the new dynamics in new wars can shape the future in Syria from a state building perspective. I argue that the high presence of external actors and their increased interference in new wars affect state building. The result suggests that the presence external actors and their involvement prevents centralization of resources and power, and decrease the state’s monopoly on violence and this decentralization and privatization in new wars indicates on fragmentation of the state rather than state consolidation.