Abstract
At present, Western armies seem to be engaged only in small wars, e. g. the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and this trend is likely to continue in the near future. From a historical view only a few small wars, with respect to military superiority, have been won by great powers and, on the contrary, the small wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan represented the bitterest defeats that the two Cold War superpowers experienced.
Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is supposed to make a change in this uncomfortable trend. However, the role of the RMA in small wars is very ambiguous.
On the one hand, the RMA could solve the value dilemmas the postmodern western societies are bound with. It saves the lives of soldiers, and hence it prevents people from turning their attention to the particular war, and, secondly, it prevents the soldiers from being conscious of killing, and therefore the soldiers are not so alienated from their society.
On the other hand, modern technologies alienate soldiers from the war and from their enemy. They prevents them from understanding and respecting the enemy and therefore the RMA makes a way to peace by either victory or agreement difficult.