The Rise and Fall of ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’

Abstract This chapter analyses the fashion lifecycle of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) concept from 1991 to 2005. Briefly put, the RMA promised that the exploitation of precision and information technology would guarantee the United States a competitive advantage over any future peer adversary. After the end of the Cold War, this concept served as guidance for U.S. doctrine development and defence planning. This chapter shows how a specific, narrow interpretation of the RMA became dominant and was then imported into academic discourses, together with its underlying assumptions and untested claims. Bandwagoning encouraged superficial engagement to the effect that the RMA became seen not as a conceptual tool but as material reality. When the concept’s promise faltered in light of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it lost its attractive and coercive power. This chapter also outlines different functions that a fashionable concept can perform in (academic) discourse.