Post‐modern war has mostly been analysed from the technological point of view. However, although technology is important, irony has appeared as the most striking feature in post‐modern warfare. It is ironic, for example, that currently it is more dangerous to serve in a peacekeeping force than in battle since more soldiers have lost their lives keeping peace than fighting war. Dr Coker also discusses the privatising of war‐fare which again seems to be on the agenda. In the age of total war, all citizens were required to take part in the efforts to win the battle, and the state spent vast quantities on military effort. States have, from being big spenders, become partners of the private and voluntary sectors. This, he argues, is a result of the disappearance of ideologies which has called into question the role of the public sector. What we have ended up with is post‐heroic warfare. The external enemies which were hated during the early part of the 20th century—the bourgeois, the revolutionary, etc.—are no...