New Wars: Would You Like Fries With That?

The battles fought decades ago, one national army fighting against another, have changed

in modern warfare. Mary Kaldor, in her essay entitled “Beyond Militarism, Arms Races, and

Arms Control,” discusses the type of wars that are fought today and possible ways to control

them. She calls the wars of today “new wars.” These “new wars” can be described as attacks on

civilians by netforces, “informal or privatized groups,” typically found in failing states or in

areas where gangs can be found (Kaldor, 270). She talks about the positive effects that

globalization can have on how warfare is fought despite the new consequences that would arise.

However, in Eric Schlosser’s essay, “Global Realization,” he describes the negative effects that

globalization has on the world in terms of multi-national companies (497). This paper will argue

that the concepts of “new wars” are comparable to the ways in which McDonald’s is spreading

throughout the world and how they ultimately are for the worst. Though both essays argue their

take on globalization from different sides and topics, there are numerous similarities between the

two with the negative consequences always being placed on the innocent victims. Included in

these parallels are the ideas of globalization, casualty-free war, neo-militarism, and

humanitarianism. Other connections are communication, technology, universality and

interconnectedness.

Casualty-free war is just an illusion that is used to influence people’s perspectives, just as

McDonald’s uses illusions to draw in customers. Casualty-free war is described by Kaldor as

“the use of high-technology either directly to attack an enemy or to support a proxy…The idea

now is that this high-tech warfare can be used against ‘rogue states’ sponsoring terrorists” (274).

The point of this statement is that the technology will protect the innocent bystanders of war by

way of precision and reduce the number of casualties that occur; however, this idea is not true.

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Kaldor provides an example an example when she writes, “The program for national missile

defense has to be understood in the same vein. Even if the system cannot work, it provides

imaginary protection for the United States, allowing the United States to engage in a casualty-

free war without fear of retaliation” (275). The reason this warfare exists is to create the illusion

of safety among the people of a country. This safety acts as “a loss that feels like winning”

(Schlosser, 503). If people do not have any reason to fear war, then they will not be inclined to

resist it. This idea of illusion can also be seen by Schlosser when he quotes Den Fujita, the man

responsible for bringing McDonald’s to Japan, in saying, “‘If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers

and potatoes for a thousand years…we will become taller, our skin will become white, and our

hair will be blonde’” (499). McDonald’s creates the illusion that people can change who they

are and how they look just by consuming certain food. Though it is not clear whether or not the

people of Japan actually believed Fujita’s statement, it still created a deception among the

Japanese that may have caused them to become susceptible to McDonald’s claims. These

illusions can negatively influence a country’s outlook of the world; however, there are more

problems caused by casualty-free war than just illusions.

Casualty-free war hurts people indirectly just as the food of McDonald’s ultimately

causes harm to people. Kaldor shows how this type of war affects people by saying,

from the point of view of the victims, these wars are very real and not so different

from old wars. However precise the strikes, it is impossible to avoid ‘mistakes’ or

‘collateral damage.’ It does not make civilian casualties any more palatable to be

told they were not intended. Moreover, the destruction of physical infrastructure

and the support for one side in the conflict, as in the case of proxies, results in

many more indirect casualties (275).

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This shows how countries are trying to create illusions for their people, but the countries are

actually unable to do so because the consequences can easily be seen by the citizens. The

probability that no “collateral damage” will take place is next to impossible. The only way to

possibly avoid this would be to abolish war altogether. An example of this could be September

11 where the attack not only killed the people in targeted areas; it also hurt the families of the

people whose lives were lost. The “collateral damage” is similar to McDonald’s low cost food

making people believe they are getting more food for their money, even though they are slowly

risking their health. This idea can be seen when Schlosser explains how the price of fast food

has fallen and has caused people to eat more nutritionally unsound and unbalanced meals (507).

When hunger takes over, people begin to only see food as a way to end that hunger. These

people fail to see the side effects that come about when they eat excessive amounts of greasy

food. This is happening across the globe. McDonald’s is using globalization to spread to nations

all over the world including countries that are evolving into more open states.

Kaldor and Schlosser both comment on how globalization forces changes upon states all

around the world. An example of this is neo-militarism, which Kaldor describes as

the evolution of classical military forces in large transition states. These are states

that are undergoing a transition from a centralized economy to a more

internationally open market-oriented state and, yet, which are large enough to

retain a sizeable state sector…They are not large enough to challenge the U.S. and

they are constrained by many of the imperatives of globalization, subject to many

of the pressures that are experienced by frail or failing states (276).

This shows how even though these failing states are slowly becoming connected to the world,

they are still suffering from many of the same problems they have always had. One of the

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pressures they must undergo is to increase military spending (Kaldor, 276). Their military

forces, though large, still have to work hard to keep their growing state alive. While expanding

states are forced to change their culture in terms of military spending and keeping old problems,

the McDonald’s industry is forcing cultures to change in terms of food, which creates new

problems in a culture. Schlosser describes this change when he describes how companies use

their suppliers when they expand globally. However, people fear that America will try to take

over the world. This causes the companies to use native food from those countries or change the

countries agriculture altogether (Schlosser, 498). This shows how countries are jeopardizing

their culture when they allow McDonald’s to expand. Instead of eating food that is native to

their land, they are eating American food that is harming their bodies. The food at McDonald’s

changes cultures because of the global standards that the business holds.

Just as McDonald’s has standards around the world, a solution for controlling “new wars”

is to create global standards. The name for this global war standard is humanitarianism. Kaldor

describes this term as using interconnectedness to create global war laws, and use groups, such

as peace-keeping forces, to enforce these laws (279). These laws would put restrictions on

weapons and how war is executed (Kaldor, 281). These laws are meant to protect the lives of the

innocent, but in fact they are just changing the people who will be targeted. In turn, the people

being protected will end up being hurt by association. If peace-keeping forces are the ones who

are attempting to save civilians then those forces will become the new targets. Despite the fact

that the connection between two states will in turn create problems for the attacking state, such

as a cease to exporting and importing goods, the aggressor will still do what is necessary to

accomplish their goals. This idea of standards can be seen at McDonald’s throughout the world.

Schlosser shows these standards when he writes, “This McDonald’s was in Dachau, but it could

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have been anywhere—anywhere in the world. Millions of other people at that very moment

were standing at the same counter, ordering the same food from the same menu, food that tasted

everywhere the same” (501). It is these standards that make people believe statements like Den

Fujita’s. People believe they can change their lives by eating at a place like McDonald’s. When

people entrust their life with a fast food restaurant, they are doing just what McDonald’s wants

them to do: spend money. They are targeting people who want to save money and then affecting

the people connected to those consumers such as family. One of the ways people are targeted

and become involved with different groups is communication.

Communication is a key component to the expansion of new war and the fast food

industry. Kaldor shows how groups use communication when she states, “Modern

communications are important for the new networks both as a way of organizing the network and

as a form of mobilization. Constructions of the past are developed and disseminated through

radio, videos and television” (272). This statement shows how different groups, such as

netforces, use technology in order to convince people to follow them, spread knowledge, or

quickly spread messages to other members of a group. Netforces are able to spread their ideas

and influence mass amounts of people at one time and gain supporters more easily. Kaldor uses

communication to describe the spread of netforce networks and influence citizens whereas

Schlosser uses it to describe McDonald’s spread to consumers. Schlosser shows how

McDonald’s uses communication to influence groups, such as children, when he writes, “As in

the United States, the fast food companies have targeted their foreign advertising and promotion

at a group of consumers with the fewest attachments to tradition: young children…a survey

found that half of the nation’s nine- and ten-year-olds thought that Ronald McDonald knew what

kids should eat” (499). This shows how easily information can be thrown upon people to make

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them believe what a particular group wants them to believe. The media is a powerful form of

communication that can nearly brainwash people who are vulnerable to deceit. This

communication has allowed McDonald’s to expand for many years without too many difficulties

because people conceded to their advertising. Communication is one of the main aspects of the

universality that connects different states together.

Universality and interconnectedness are the main basis for why humanitarianism is

believed to work. Kaldor defines interconnectedness as “the shrinking of distance and time, as a

result of the combination of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and air travel”

(269). This definition means that the boundaries between are fading, not to the point of

eliminating countries, but enough to make the societies of different states integrated. However,

this also creates the problem of not being able to stop one group after it spreads globally. If one

section of a group is taken out, then the others will not be greatly affected because of the stretch

around the world. This can also be seen by McDonald’s expansion throughout the world.

Schlosser gives statistics for the increase of McDonald’s restaurants when he describes how

McDonald’s has built quintupled its number of international restaurants to fifteen thousand in ten

years and in 117 countries (497). This shows how much McDonald’s has grown in such a short

period of time along with how widespread the company is. If one McDonald’s was destroyed,

nobody would really be affected that greatly. McDonald’s will not notice that about .0067% of

their restaurants (one restaurant) are gone (Schlosser, 497). This goes hand in hand with how

powerful groups cannot be taken down unless every seedling throughout the world is destroyed,

or at least a vast majority of them.

Both Kaldor and Schlosser make points as to how different groups and industries are able

to spread around the globe. They both share the common idea of international expansion.

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Though Kaldor’s idea of humanitarianism may be feasible, they are not the best solution to “new

wars.” Schlosser’s ideas show how the growth of McDonald’s is similar to the “new wars”

including how they influence the inhabitants of the states they spread to. The idea of

interconnectedness instills the idea of certain powers becoming nearly unstoppable because it

would be necessary to destroy every part of a network to wipe it out. On the same level,

McDonald’s is not killing large groups of people quickly with violence, but it is still creating

problems in the lives of customers. Though the goals of McDonald’s and “new wars” are not the

same, the ways in which they try to achieve these goals are very similar, and both end up hurting

people around the world. It is up to the people of the world to find a way to solve these problems

without the consequences that arise from globalization.