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''The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World'' is a treatise on modern warfare written by General Sir Rupert Smith and published in 2005. Smith is a retired general who spent 40 years in the British Army; he commanded the 1st Armoured Division in the First Gulf War and served as General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles. He was motivated to write the book by his experiences in the Balkans. He commanded the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia from 1995 to 1996, during which time the Srebrenica massacre occurred and the capital, Sarajevo, was under siege by Serb forces. Smith was instrumental in the lifting of the siege by arranging for NATO air strikes and an artillery barrage. This enabled a ground assault by Bosnian and Croatian forces that ended the siege and led to the Dayton Agreement. Smith's second involvement with the Balkans was in 1999 during the Kosovo War, when he was serving as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, overseeing air strikes against Serb targets. Smith's thesis, and the central theme of ''The Utility of Force'', is that the world entered a new paradigm of conflict at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, which he calls "war amongst the people", and that Western, industrialised armies are ill-suited to the new style of warfare. The defining characteristics of "war amongst the people" are that conflicts tend to be timeless, more political in nature, and fought between parties that are part of, and in amongst, the civilian population rather than between uniformed armies on a battlefield. To prove his theory, Smith provides a detailed history starting with Napoleon, who invented what Smith calls "industrial warfare"—the paradigm in which the entire resources of the nation were mustered and which culminated in the two world wars. In the second half of the book, Smith states that the advent of nuclear weapons rendered industrial warfare obsolete, but that Western governments and generals refused to acknowledge the new paradigm, which led to several significant defeats in the second half of the 20th century. He provides six themes which characterise modern conflicts and proceeds to analyse each in detail, before dedicating his final chapter to his reflections on his command in Bosnia. He concedes that he did not foresee the Srebenica massacre, but criticises UNPROFOR, believing that it was not in a position to act even had the massacre been foreseen and that it had no strategy for effectively intervening in the war. In his conclusion, Smith argues that military force is only part of the solution in modern conflicts, and that it must be combined with political initiatives which together will subdue but not necessarily end the conflict. ''The Utility of Force'' was broadly praised by reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. It was compared favourably with Carl von Clausewitz's treatise ''On War'' and American reviewers felt that it contained important lessons for the United States military. Smith was criticised for over-emphasising the paradigm shift, with several reviewers observing that conventional wars are still fought and that the threat of such wars still exists, and for drawing too clear a distinction between "war amongst the people" and conventional war, particularly with his opening sentence "war no longer exists". Reviewers also felt that Smith under-emphasised the extent to which "war amongst the people" has always existed. Nonetheless, reviewers praised Smith's analysis of modern war and recommended that ''The Utility of Force'' ought to be read by politicians and military officers. ==Background== General Sir Rupert Smith is a retired career military officer who served in the British Army for 40 years. At the height of his career, Smith held several significant commands in both conventional conflicts and "wars amongst the people". As a major general, he commanded the 1st Armoured Division during the first Gulf War (1990–91). He went on to serve as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff for operations and security from 1992 to 1995, during which time he came to the conclusion that military force could only achieve one of four things when used to intervene in a political conflict: "ameliorate, contain, deter or coerce, and destroy".〔〔 Smith's decision to write ''The Utility of Force'' was prompted by his experience in the Balkans.〔〔 In late January 1995, Smith was appointed to command the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), sent to intervene in the Bosnian War.〔 Smith was based in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, where he devised a strategy for the multi-national UN force that had been deployed effectively to carry out mainly humanitarian tasks but without a plan to bring the war to a successful conclusion.〔〔 At the time of Smith's deployment, Sarajevo was in the middle of a siege, which Smith was instrumental in lifting after arranging for NATO air strikes and an artillery barrage against Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic. A ground campaign by Bosnian and Croatian forces eventually led to the Dayton Agreement, which brought the war to an end.〔 It was also during Smith's command of UNPROFOR that the Srebrenica massacre—recognised by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia as an act of genocide—took place. Historian Niall Ferguson was adamant that Smith bore no responsibility for the events at Srebrenica and was indeed one of the few British officials "to emerge with distinction" from the intervention in Bosnia; nonetheless, Ferguson believed that the experience illuminates Smith's theoretical writings.〔 After UNPROFOR, Smith served as General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland from 1996 to 1998 towards the conclusion of the Troubles.〔 In 1999, during the Kosovo War, Smith was NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. NATO commenced air strikes against Serb forces led by Slobodan Milošević, again lacking defined objectives, while Smith worked to incorporate the bombing raids into an overall strategy.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Utility of Force」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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