What constitutes victory in a war? The case of Operation Protective Edge

Abstract

The ways in which we fight wars today has changed with the technological advances and changing political landscapes. This raises the question if our understanding of ‘victory’ in a war has evolved sufficiently to be applicable and valid in cases of asymmetrical or hybrid warfare. Victory is a contentious and provocative term, but it has the capacity to influence the destiny of nations, shape future behavior of states, offer resolutions and credibility and much more.
This dissertation focuses on the understandings and perceptions of the term ‘victory’ in an asymmetrical war. The case study employed to help illustrate the complexities of defining and determining ‘victory’ and ‘defeat’ in a war, is the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas. Both sides claimed victory, despite lacking the metrics in ‘accurately’ assessing their winnings.
This paper concludes that Israel indeed achieved its war aims, whereas Hamas failed. However, this does not mean that Israel ‘won’ the war and that Hamas ‘lost’ it. Hamas was still able to convince its public of victory, despite all physical evidence to the contrary. As a result, defining and determining victory remains largely contested, regardless of what metrics one employs.