Concepts & opinions

Weekend Roundup: Paris Attacks Upend Concepts of War, Security and Alliances

The attacks claimed by the self-described Islamic State in Paris have done more than spread fear across the West. They have upended our concepts of war, security and alliances in a connected yet disintegrating world -- a world in which no superpower or group of states can impose order.

As the "End of Power" author Moisés Naím notes, ISIS has breached that perimeter that above all defines strong states: a monopoly over violence. It has shifted the battlefield to the soft targets of cafes and concert halls. As Lucia Annunziata writes from Italy, "The Third World War, whether you want to believe it or not, is already underway ... and Europe is its theater." The savvy of ISIS operatives has also called into question whether we can maintain both open borders and encrypted cyberspace.