Social Problems: Chapter 15

Conflict, War, and Terrorism

War (most violent form of conflict): organized armed violence against a social group in pursuit of an objective.

• Modern wars fought in populated areas.

• War contributes to other social problems such as disease, death, and disability, crime and immorality, psychological terror, loss of economic sources, and environmental devastation.

Global Conflicts

Before industrialization and technological innovations, war occurred at a small scale. Now, it is a global scale.

• Interstate wars make up the least amount of armed conflict

Global Conflicts: War & Social Change

War resulted in groups becoming villages, villages becoming chiefdoms, and chiefdoms becoming states. A state is a power of institutions whose functions include (1) use of force, (2) control of territory, and (3) maintenance of internal order.

Influence of industrialization on wars: (1) [Cohen] Industrialization decreases proneness to conflict and (2) Industrialization increases the destruction of conflict.

• Space Force as a Military Branch (Trump)

Globalization impacts the nature of war since economies and security across nations is so intertwined now.

• The North American Treaty Organization (NATO, 1949): Alliance between U.S, Canada, and European nations against the soviet union — marks the beginning of the cold war (U.S v. Soviet Union, 50+ years)

  • Pros: (1) Pathways for conflict within membership and (2) collaborate for support, information, and materials.

  • Cons: (1) Obligated to help members and (2) 2% GDP to defense and contributions to NATO common fund.

Global Conflicts: Economic Costs of Military Spending

Global Military Spending (2019): Highest spending since 1988, $1.92T or $249/global person. 

• U.S contributes the most due to competition between them and Soviet Union in Cold War; RANKED - (1) U.S (38%/$732B), (2) China ($261B), (3) India ($71.1B) and (4) Russia ($65.1B)

The U.S is a global leader in arms transfers, with 79% of trades between 2007-2017. 

The only U.S wars that haven’t resulted in greater GDP are Iraq and Afghanistan. 

• Cost of violence: $14T ($1,000+/global person) — $2.9T to military spending

  • Indirect costs result from broken infrastructure, broken healthcare, and easier passage of disease (refugees, asylum, displaced people)

Structural Functionalist Perspective

Structural Functionalist Perspective: War is functional by (1) creating states, (2) social cohesion/shared enemy, (3) increase in employment, (4) innovations for civilians, (5) encourages social reform, (6) equal rights, and (7) alternative paths for disadvantaged groups.

• Rally round the flag effect: social cohesion during war

• Dual-use technology: defense funded innovations that have civilian applications (Healthcare instruments)

• The military was desegregated before the civil rights legislation was passed.

Conflict Perspective

Conflict Perspective: Emphasizes that war stems from groups, countries, or regions competing for control or differing ideologies.

• War benefits elites by:

  • Corporate elite: taking control of losing countries’ materials — profit no matter what

  • Political elite: government officials labelled heroes and gain prestige

  • Military elite: prestige and employment for officials

Private Military and Security Contactors (PMSCs)

• Pros: (1) cost effective and increases efficiency, and (2) flexibility

• Cons: (1) PMSCs do not need to obey civilians the same way formal military are to preserve military-civilian relations and (2) for profit and do not have the same standards as formal military

  • Blackwater Worldwide Incident

    • Swiss government and United Nations formed standards through: (1) 2008 Montreux Document and (2) 2010 international code of conduct association for private security service providers.

• Rise in PMSCs in past 2 decades.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: How meanings and definitions influence attitudes and behavior toward war.

• Children learn to appreciate war when learning about the revolutionary war and being encouraged to celebrate, (2) paying with violent toys and games, or (3) watching violence in media.

A positive connotation of war stems from (1) language [war on drugs, war on crime, war on poverty] and (2) propaganda with patriotism.

• Propaganda is taken differently by different groups; 76% of black Americans believe the Iraq War was a mistake.

• Deaths are referred to as causalities instead of murders; killing is more acceptable when derogatory labels are placed on the enemy

  • Dower: U.S and Japan depicting each other degradingly during WWII

News coverage impacts mental health. 

Conflict Perspective (Feminist Theory)

Countries with little gender equality are more likely to be involved in conflict, particularly because of the social association between men and military violence. 

DoD is now requiring gender neutral standards for branches

• Option 1: Men and women are measured based on effort — women are seen as incompetent.

• Option 2: Men and women are compared to job requirements, leading to less women in physical jobs — women seen as competent

15% of the military is women, yet only 7% are admirals or generals.

Transgender service members

(1) Conflict over land and resources, (2) conflict over ideology and values, (3) racial, ethnic, and religious hostilities, (4) defense against hostile attacks, (5) revolutions and civil wars, (6) nationalism, (7) Terrorism, (8) roots of terrorism, and (9) america’s response to terrorism.

Causes of War: Conflict over land and resources

Klare: wars will increase as natural resources diminish.

• Conflict is most likely to occur when (1) borders and easy to cross and (2) borders are not defined by a natural barrier

Oil has been a source of conflict in the Middle East. Rare earth minerals used to make phones may be the next conflict mineral, or minerals that perpetuate abuse and conflict.

Water/irrigation has also led to wars in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China.

Arab Springs protests broke out into civil wars in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Serbia between the Sunni (North) and the Shiite (South).

Causes of War: Conflict over values and ideology

WWII (Democracy v. Fascism) and Cold War (Capitalism v. Communism)

• Conflicts over values and ideologies are less likely to result in compromise due to human conviction.

Countries with similar values are less likely to wage war on each other.

• Democratic Peach Theory: Democratic nations are less likely to wage war on each other

Causes of War: Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Hostilities

Constructivist explanation of ethnic conflict: blames leaders

Primordial explanation of ethnic conflict: blames history and roots

Chirot: Ethnic hostilities result from retribalization — ethnic members grouping with “extended family of an ethnic group”

Religious differences also make up a portion of wars:

• Islamic Jihad (Holy War): 9/11 and other attacks

• Same religion but different sects: Civil wars in Yemen and Serbia (Sunni v. Shiite)

  • Martyrdom: Dying for one’s beliefs

Gurr’s Relative Deprivation Theory: war is more likely to occur when what a population expects and receives has a noticeable gap.

Causes of War: Defense against hostile attacks

Security Dilemma: Raising one states security calls for other states to fix the imbalance and instate protections of their own. This creates a cycle, which creates tension, and possibly conflict. 

• France & Britain declaring war on Germany after they invaded Poland; WWI Germany and Russia; and Pearl Harbor

• After terrorist attacks, U.S paired with Britain and others to invade Iraq due to threats of destructive weapons — of which was false information.

  • Although U.S withdrew, they contributed to the ongoing civil war

Causes of War: Revolutions and Civil Wars

Revolutions: Sweeping changes that alter distribution of power in society

• U.S; Russia; North & South Korea; North & South Sudan; Algeria; and Zimbabwe

Civil Wars: Do not have such large scale societal changes

• May take years following a war to classify it

• Revolutions and civil wars are most likely when (1) the government is weak and divided, (2) the government is not responsive to citizens, and (3) strong civilian leaders present and willing. 

  • Civil wars in Syria and Yemen

Causes of War: Nationalism

Some countries engage in war for national pride, such as Germany turning to nationalism when they were excluded from the world. Nationalism is pride despite detriment to other countries. 

• Association between nations feelings of national exclusion and aggressive foreign policies 

Nationalism is polarizing, but it is effective in group identities and political support. 

• A recent decline in nationalism is associated with the fear that it is related to social group division and abuse.

Causes of War: Terrorism

Terrorism: Use of violence against civilians to publicize a cause/ideology, achieve religious freedom, release of prisoners, or rebel against governments — it is unlikely to be completely defeated.

• For 2 decades, terrorism has been one of America’s biggest threats

Transnational Terrorism

• 9/11 was one of the most deadly, perpetrated by Al-Qaeda. When their leader was defeated, more groups arose, indicating an ongoing conflict.

• Department of State: Can classify and has identified 65 terrorist organizations. They can freeze assets, prosecute, and prevent entry.

Domestic Terrorism

• Trickier because rights have to be taken into account. 

• Domestic white-nationalist terrorism is U.S’ greatest threat (Jan 6)

• Definitions depend on social meanings: Roof shot up a black church and received no terrorist charges

Causes of War: Roots of Terrorism

Focusing on the macro of terrorism wasn’t working, so scholars moved onto looking at the micro.

• Borum: How people move from radicalization to violent extremism can be best understood through the terrorists’ mindset.

  • Counter violent extremist efforts (CVE): Multifaceted approach to understanding grievances, psychosocial vulnerabilities, social networks, perceived rewards, and experiences with incarceration.

Causes of War: America’s response to terrorism

Defensive strategies: increasing security at airports and in the military

Offensive strategies: bombing, infiltration, and preemptive strikes

• Critical of high costs; we would need 300 tragedies at the same scale as the Boston marathon shooting to justify costs.

2 Incidents have raised concerns: (1) Manning leaked information about Iraq and Afghanistan and (2) Snowden leaked information about the National Security Surveillance program, which was deemed unconstitutional later on.

Causes of War: America’s response to terrorism (Detention centers or “Black Sites”)

Guantanamo Detention Center "“Gitmo”: primary detention center for potential terrorists and Al-Qaeda

• 26 have been in since 2002 and have not been charges; the Geneva Convention requires some protections for prisoners

Senate’s report on the CIA’s program: (1) torture is present, (2) lied to gain approval, (3) provided false information, (4) releasing inaccurate information to the media, and (5) wrongfully detaining people and using innocent people as collateral

• 48% of Americans (mostly republican) state that torture could be justified

Americans 2x likely to be killed by an animal than terrorist; 2x likely to be killed by a domestic terrorist than an international one.

Antidefamation League (ADL): increase in domestic terrorism over years (78% of all terrorist attacks)

• 2019 had the highest amount of white supremacy propaganda ever recorded

Neo-Nazi Organizations:

• The Base: American based in Russia

• Atomwaffen Division: Origins in Florida; now in Germany, UK, and Ukraine.