The Epistemology of RMA

The use of military revolution as a way to explain the integration of new types of weaponry and systems in the politico‐strategic reality has been widely misused, as much in its definition as in the impact of its contributions to foreign and defence politics. This chapter focuses on operational and technological aspects of RMA. First, the "RMA phenomenon" can be based on an iterative evolution, in longue duree, and this in order to avoid the traps of an “event history” and to distinguish its major trends. Secondly, the "RMA phenomenon" can be seen as an isolated product in conjoncture time, thus making it, strictly speaking, revolutionary. From a historical point of view, RMA presents it as an isolated phenomenon, produced by specific technological, cultural and political conceptions in a specific time period, when revolution is a matter of event history and no longer of conjoncture and longue duree.