How do we know what we know about war?

Normalization begins early Through media

Memorials, rituals, mourning 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. Where?II. What kind?III. Types of causesIV. Examples

1. Korean War2. Kashmir3. Somalia4. Georgia5. Myanmar

V. 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

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)

If war is “natural,” how does it come to be so?

HUMAN SOCIAL NATURE is a main cause of war.

•Structure of social relations, group contradictions, division and sub-division 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.

•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.

TECHNICAL (MAN-MADE) NATURE is a main cause of modern and future wars.

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. Permissive: Wars happen because constraints that prevent them dissolve

2. General: Wars break out because parties have irresolvable differences & war is a “solution”

3. 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/wikipedia/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, ethnically-

mixed countries• One dominant

nationality• Power & wealth

imbalances• Mineral-rich regions• External meddling