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Rapid and ongoing transformation of conflicts, or 'fluidity,' may well become the most intriguing and destabilizing characteristic of the future international environment. What would such a scenario imply in terms of actors' sociology, means, and conflict systems? Fluid actors will be able to transform rapidly, remaining undetectable; as a result of a complex relationship with territory, they could have truly chaotic objectives. In terms of strategies and tactics, these actors will make systematic efforts to break with routine and to destabilize their adversaries, defeating them through a mind game rather than through a military confrontation. The systems of conflict resulting from this fluidity will be highly volatile, interdependent, and complex. In essence, it will be impossible to define these systems with one given type of conflict.

Aline Leboeuf, Researcher involved in the field of Security Studies at Ifri since October 2003, has a degree from the Institut d'études politiques of Paris (2002) and from the DEA de Relations internationales of the Université Paris I (2003). Her thesis, in the process of being published, will concern the British intervention in Sierra Leone.