Session 22: War and Peace

Russel once commented that War does not determine who is right; only who is left.

It is human nature to use force to assert authority and establish order. States, resembling individual actors are prone to turn towards military powers instead of engaging in dialog to settle conflicts on favorable terms. So on an individual level, states resemble cavemen heightened by the need for security that could attack if they saw a threat to their wellbeing or saw unfavorable circumstances. The rationale that leaders have behind war is that they, after carefully calculating their moves and defining the strategies to follow, establish that they can achieve greater power and prosperity by going to war than by remaining at peace and so driven by egoism, they believe wars benefit them.

Nationalism, Ethnic hostilities, Religious and ideological conflicts alongside territorial and economic competitions are all common reasons for waging war. On a domestic level, the political socialization and the political culture amongst states determines their characteristics and likelihood of going to war e.g. a democratic nation according to democratic peace theory would not go to war with other democracies. So by generalizing the nature of states, we can determine if they're pro or anti war.

At an inter-state level, war is a power game between major actors in the international system. Whatever reasons, agendas or motives a country may have for going to war, the end result is the same in all cases; the powerful wins over the weaker party. The theory of war is hence directly aligned with realism as use of force and violence as a source of leverage in international conflicts. It is not surprising hence, that countries with strong military power and weapons for nuclear and other forms of warfare use these as bargaining chips while asserting their superiority and acting as hegemons in the international arena and so arms races occur promoting superiority and war. Nor is it queer that during the Cold War, America's superiority in weapons versus Russia's nuclear proliferation produced a nuclear deterrence since both parties were fairly matched and the power they held made their status stronger. Peace studies argue that war is closely tied to militarism, instead of just being a natural expression of power.

Globally, the theory of war transitions according to prevalent time. Cycle theories are linked to wars. and transformation of societies globally shows why ideas such as collective security are becoming widely accepted and the concept of eliminating anarchy in the international arena have led to a rapid decline in wars in the long term trend. In the first half of 20th century, world wars ruined entire continents and killed 10s of millions. In the following half, proxy wars massacred millions alongside the fear of a nuclear war wiping out human species. Today, we witness wars such as those in Iraq, Israel, Yemen killing hundreds and thousands; a significant amount yet the toll has declined drastically and even terrorist attacks occurring frequently, are limited in their scope. The trend hence is that these large amounts, although still catastrophic, have impacts to destroy cities and small states but can in no way destroy all life on the planet. This uneven but inexorable waning of war caused deaths from millions to mere hundreds of thousands proves that wars may decline one day to altogether fading away. The long term trend towards smaller wars shows the success of international peace keepers. Today we witness more skirmishes than ong drawn out battles and ceasefires and negotiations are more evident and the death rates have fallen by more than 80% from 1990s.

The laws of human rationality and history all scream the simultaneous and never-ending destruction of cities can produce no benefits to anyone and that various factions of the globe must unite to produce a war free international system with peace treaties, defined alliances, a complete sweep of the web of wars around the world; an idealist approach it may be but the good of the society lies in the belief for world peace and perfect harmony.