Fashionable Concepts as Systemic Phenomenon

Abstract This chapter argues that the three analysed concepts are not random events but related to each other, both in their content and in the processes that produced them. This chapter first looks at the dynamics of fashionability, meaning the forces and steps that were present in all three cases at different stages of the fashion lifecycle. The second section discusses a few underlying assumptions shared by all three concepts that allow us to draw conclusions not only on the repetitiveness of the fashion cycle but also on the study of war more generally. These assumptions include a conventional-war bias, a focus on means, and an overgeneralization from individual events. These tendencies in Western strategic analysis marginalize the role of agency, context, and interaction in shaping the character of war.