Now in the current world, of course, we've talked about Iraq, whether or not that's in a civil war. I'm not in a position to come up with one myself and I'm interested to see the consequences of what happens when other people try to.īRENDAN TREMBATH: You're talking about civil wars in the current world and in the ancient world. To call a war a civil war has implications, for instance, about whether the laws of war apply, and which laws of war apply. That was very much the case in relation to Iraq. To call a war a civil war looked at from the outside is to say that it's somebody else's business, we shouldn't be there. I'm interested in the way it does become a bone of contention in particular conflicts as well. How do you define a civil war?ĭAVID ARMITAGE: I wouldn't go out on a limb and define it myself. Bush was denying there was a civil war in Iraq. All the other wars going on the world, more than 20 or 30 of them, they're all civil wars now and we need to understand them.īRENDAN TREMBATH: The definition can be controversial. In 2003 George Bush said mission accomplished in Iraq that was the end of the last formal war in the states. They're also the only kind of conflict that we have going on around us at the moment. I spoke to Professor Armitage earlier and asked him why study civil wars?ĭAVID ARMITAGE: Because civil wars have been the most frequent and also the most ferocious form of collective human conflict since almost time immemorial. His lecture is titled 'Civil War from Rome to Iraq'. Professor Armitage is visiting Australia and next week is due to speak at the University of Sydney. He says the cost of the wars currently being waged is about $100-billion a year. There are about 30 civil wars being fought around the world, from Afghanistan to Uganda.Īnd there's a lot of debate about whether Iraq is on the grip of civil war.Īn authority on civil wars from ancient to modern times is the Harvard University Professor of History, David Armitage.

David armitage civil wars