Download Why do wars happen?

How do we know what we know about war?
Normalization begins early
Memorials, rituals, mourning
Through media
Schools, churches, stores
Even language
War offers an
illusion of power
and control
But wars never follow the
desired or imagined plan;
they are difficult to control
How does Chris Hedges account for war?
• Hedges is an idealist: not a
dreamer, but one who looks at
collective consciousess
• Most explanations focus on
livelihood: how war is liked to
production
• Hedges sees war as filling a
deep human need for purpose:
ontology
• War becomes crusade
• These can operate in the
individual, in groups, in the
nation
• Eros & thanatos? Sex & death?
By contrast, Robert Kaplan sees the sources
of war in geography (geopolitics)
• Kaplan fancies himself a realist, but
his framework is a form of idealism
• Geography is immutable
• Human societies adapt to geography
to survive
• Hence, their character is determined
by geography
• This operates in 2 ways:
– In terms of behaviors in war
– In terms of prosecuting war
• What is determined cannot be
changed: geographic space is
national destiny!
What if the (nation)-state is war?
What if our societies are sustained only because of war?
What would a “not-war” world look like? And who would lose?
Why do wars happen?
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Where?
What kind?
Types of causes
Examples
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
V.
Korean War
Kashmir
Somalia
Georgia
Myanmar
Shared features
Where are wars happening today?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/map.htm
What kinds of wars are these and why?
• Interstate: N.-S. Korea
• Territorial: South China Sea;
Israel-Palestine
• Secessionist/liberation:
Angola; India; Chechnya
• Civil war: Ivory Coast;
Somalia; Georgia; Palestine
• Ethnic/religious: Afpak; Spain;
Turkey
• Insurgency/rebellion: Algeria;
Burma; Laos
• Economic: Mexico; Congo
• Intervention: Iraq; Yemen
Alexander Nikitin has offered the following
framework for the causes of war
• War is unnatural (and
can be eliminated)
• War is natural, in
human nature (and
cannot be eliminated)
• Structural/contextual
factors sometimes
enable war (some are
“natural,” others not)
http://www.pugwash.org/reports/pic/pac256
/WG2draft1.htm
"WAR IS UNNATURAL” theories
(Theories of unnatural essence of war)
War has no "eternal" or natural causes. War is a
violation of human and social nature. It could and
should be abandoned.
"WAR IS NATURAL" Theories
(Theories of natural causes of war)
Wars have natural causes & reasons. These causes are
built-in human and/or social nature. The causes are
indestructible, thus wars are unavoidable.
Minimum Security © 2006 Stephanie McMillan
If war is “natural,” how does it come to be so?
HUMAN NATURE is a main cause of
war.
•Inborn, instinctive aggressiveness in
an individual is an unavoidable
parameter of human nature.
•War is biologically “approved.”
•War is a continuation and an
extension of the "struggle of species
for survival' from a biological world
to a social world (Social Darwinism)
HUMAN SOCIAL NATURE is a
main cause of war.
•Structure of social relations, group
contradictions, division and subdivision of humankind into ethnic
entities, nation-states, alliances and
empires presuppose wars as one of
"natural" and functional ways of social
interaction between them.
•Some wars are more justified and
functional, some less, but as a whole
wars are a "dialectical" way of
resolving contradictions.
•Progress and social development
sometime occurs in the form of wars.
•Wars could be modified, controlled,
but could not and even should not be
eliminated as a social phenomenon.
TECHNICAL (MAN-MADE) NATURE is a main cause of
modern and future wars.
•Scientific and technological progress,
industrialization and post-industrial
development created,
–firstly, great demand for resources and
redistribution of them, and
–secondly, huge arsenals of modern means of
destruction and fantastic abilities of a
modern man to influence through technology
(weaponry, computers, communication &
propaganda) other men and states.
•Scientific thought couldn't be stopped.
Weapons and dual-use technologies couldn't
be disinvented.
•Modern technologically supported wars (as
well as futuristic nuclear, space, electronic
and so on wars) are a "natural" and
unavoidable companion of a scientific and
technological progress.
Structural or Contextual factors enable
wars to happen, and so they do
• For example, there is no
global state or authority
to step in & prevent war
• The state emerged via
war & is sustained by it
(whether real or not)
• Small countries next to
big ones are almost
always disadvantaged
• A search for lebensraum
Permissive, General & Proximate causes
1.
2.
3.
Permissive: Wars happen
because constraints that
prevent them dissolve
General: Wars break out
because parties have
irresolvable differences
& war is a “solution”
Proximate: Individual
wars each have a unique
set of triggers
Consider some specific examples
Korean War, 1950-1953 & on
• Divided at the end of
WWII
• Civil war w/in Cold
War
• N. Korea invades
• “UN forces” intervene
• China intervenes
• Armistice in 1953
• Technical state of war
Kashmir
• Princely state under
British Raj
• Mostly Muslim, but
acceded to Hindu India
• Parts occupied by India,
Pakistan & China
• Three wars between India
& Pakistan inc. Kashmir
• Insurgency late 1980s-90s
• Mass demonstrations this
summer
Somalia
• Colonized by Italy &
Britain
• Cold War ally of USSR, &
switched sides
• U.S. provided support to
Siad Barre until 1990
• Country split apart w/
many warring factions
• U.S. & Ethiopia want to
prevent Islamic state
• Official govt. has no
power
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi
a/commons/9/9f/Somalia_map_states
_regions_districts.png
Georgia (Caucasus)
• Former republic in USSR
• Multi-ethnic society
rules by Georgians
• Three secessionist
provinces
• Tiblisi unsuccessful in
ending two
• Russia entered S.
Ossetia in 2008
• Russia supports
Abkhazia
Myanmar (Burma)
•
•
•
•
British colony
Military govt.
Highly-diverse
Mineral rich along
eastern borders
• Govt. suppresses
minorities, who
revolt
• But neighbors also
have problems
Do these wars share any
characteristics?
• Internal to country
• Small, ethnicallymixed countries
• One dominant
nationality
• Power & wealth
imbalances
• Mineral-rich regions
• External meddling