{"id":126188,"date":"2025-12-01T08:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/?post_type=numero_aspenia&#038;p=126188"},"modified":"2025-12-01T08:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:42:17","slug":"the-fog-of-war","status":"publish","type":"numero_aspenia","link":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/numero_aspenia\/the-fog-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The fog of war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126186 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-01-081346-208x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-01-081346-208x300.png 208w, https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-01-081346.png 569w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px\" \/>The publication of <strong>Aspenia international 2\/2025<\/strong> marks the close of the journal\u2019s thirtieth year. Entitled \u201cThe fog of war\u201d, this issue considers whether we are living through a brief phase of tumult or rather witnessing a profound change which may lead to even more conflict. Authoritarian measures have always proved more easily enforced in times of crisis, and today\u2019s crises are real and numerous. The hope had been that economic interdependence would guarantee peace, but perhaps it has only increased our sense of vulnerability. Wars \u2013 both the sort that are fought with guns and bombs and the sort that are fought with tariffs and sanctions \u2013 abound. The previous world order is crumbling, but we have yet to define a new one. For this reason and others, many commentators and analysts would have us believe that the world is experiencing a return to empires. This question is one of crucial importance for international life today, and various authors argue here that the current crisis in the globalization process has sparked a new drive to exercise direct control over land and resources. Our conclusion, however, is that the neo-imperial rhetoric being adopted for different reasons by today\u2019s major nation states is failing to translate into reality. Despite declared ambitions, the structural conditions that made empires possible in the past are simply not there. Empires continue to cast long shadows, and the vocabulary of imperialism remains useful in analyzing the ambitions of power, the cracks in the international system, and the clashes between universalism and sovereignty. \u201cEmpires\u201d extend from the global influence of the world\u2019s major nation states to the immaterial dominance of Big Tech companies. And yet, it is more a temptation than an achievement. When all is said and done, empire today is an operational fiction. It is a powerful fiction, but a fiction nonetheless \u2013 one that feeds on shadows rather than on reality.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The publication of Aspenia international 2\/2025 marks the close of the journal\u2019s thirtieth year. Entitled \u201cThe fog of war\u201d, this issue considers whether we are living through a brief phase of tumult or rather witnessing a profound change which may lead to even more conflict. Authoritarian measures have always proved more easily enforced in times<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/numero_aspenia\/the-fog-of-war\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\u00a0(&#8230;)<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The fog of war<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2531,"featured_media":126186,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"freetags":[],"tag_tecnica":[],"temi_aspen":[],"attivita_internaz_in_essere":[],"attivita_internaz_concluse":[],"studi_e_ricerche":[],"class_list":["post-126188","numero_aspenia","type-numero_aspenia","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numero_aspenia\/126188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numero_aspenia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/numero_aspenia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numero_aspenia\/126188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126194,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numero_aspenia\/126188\/revisions\/126194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"freetags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/freetags?post=126188"},{"taxonomy":"tag_tecnica","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tag_tecnica?post=126188"},{"taxonomy":"temi_aspen","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temi_aspen?post=126188"},{"taxonomy":"attivita_internaz_in_essere","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attivita_internaz_in_essere?post=126188"},{"taxonomy":"attivita_internaz_concluse","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attivita_internaz_concluse?post=126188"},{"taxonomy":"studi_e_ricerche","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/studi_e_ricerche?post=126188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}