Chiara Libiseller, "Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies" (Oxford UP, 2026)

About this episode

Dr. Chiara Libiseller discusses her book on the cyclical nature of fashionable concepts in Strategic Studies and their impact on the understanding of war.

The field of Strategic Studies, which studies the use and threat of force for political purposes, has seen the repeated rise of concepts to dominate discourses and research agendas, only to eventually fall to the margins again. What explains this cyclical pattern? What are the consequences for our understanding of war?Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies (Oxford UP, 2026) by Dr. Chiara Libiseller examines these questions by likening the coming and going of theories to fashions. While in vogue, fashionable concepts are used widely, becoming broader and vaguer until essentially stripped of meaning. At the same time, they are bestowed with authority and power that allows them to withstand criticism and marginalizes alternative perspectives. These characteristics severely affect the quality, depth, and diversity of research by narrowing and siloing the field of inquiry.Tracing three concepts—revolution in military affairs, counterinsurgency, and hybrid warfare—through their fashion lifecycle, Dr. Libiseller demonstrates how fashionability affects the concepts themselves, related research, and the field more generally. Embedded within a…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Chiara Libiseller

Topics covered

• Strategic Studies
• war concepts
• military affairs
• counterinsurgency
• hybrid warfare
• research dynamics

Keywords

• Strategic Studies
• war
• fashionable concepts
• military affairs
• counterinsurgency
• hybrid warfare
• research quality

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxford UP

Books & works: Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies

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