10 - POL101 - WHY IS THE WORLD AT WAR?

What is war?

Thompson and Levy → sustained violence, and involves the use of forec to kill, injure, and destroy militaty/economic resources

To them, the Cold War was just a rivality, not a war

This is still debatable, becuase of the Ptoxy Wars in which they fought in Cuba and Africa

Reciprocity of violence

The actors in was are not individual, but organizations → fighting for a collective

The violence is purposeful and that is usually influencing the behaviour of the adversaries in order to drive the interests of the state

What are the three classic levels of analysis of war?

1st level: individual level

2nd level: national level

3rd level: system

What is the 1st level?

Individuals have a causal impact in war → decisions are made by those w/ power

Ex. Hitler, if he had not come into power, no WWII

Issue of states make the war → even if Hitler had the idea, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the power of the state

What is the 2nd level?

At national level, we are looking at factors associated with government and factors associated with society

What is the 3rd level?

Looking at number of major power, distribution of economic an military power, alliances, more factors based on distriction of power

The classic level of analysis in studying the international system

What are the theories of war?

Realist, Rivalry, Bargaining, Psychological, Liberal, Selectorate, Economic Independence and Peace

What is the Realist theory of war?

Focus on explaining rational pursuit and preservation of power among actors in an anarchic system

EX — The Peloponnesian War → when a nation threatens another’s dominance (power shift), there will likely be war

Security Dilemma → condlict spiral that leads to war befcause when poltiical leaders focus on the short term, they think in the worst case, engage in the struggle for power and security and use coercive threats

Offensive Strategy → states purseye regional hegemony because there’s too much uncertainty in thr world system and this creates more stability

EX — Alliances can be used to avoid war → The US and the USSR forming separate alliances during the Cold War

Defensive Stategy → in which states find themselves as war, not becuase of anarchy, but becuase of domestic pressure, tryingt o avoid hegemony and trying to maintain the equilibrium of power and power is understood by strengthening their borders

Can lead to territorial disputes → don’t nake war initable, but increase probablitity of war breaking out

Territorial disputes that go to war are usually over ethnic questions and strategic terrirory rather than economics

What is the rivalry theory of war?

Onset of war happens over time → Leng argues that crises ourcomes have impacts on the ones that come after it

Can happen after territorial disputes, if they make alliances against eachother, if they compete in arms races

Very limited success in ending rivalry through conflict resolution tequniques → more sucess in solving underlying territorial issues

EX — India and Pakistan → Kashmir/partiton, the presence of nuclear weapons (statregic arms race), presence of security dilemma (both percieve other’s military as a direct threat), competition of regional dominance, affecting realtionships with other countries

What is the Bargaining Theory of war?

War is costly and inefficient to resolve conflict becuase it destroys resources → War happens because of choices individuals make based on info they have

Assumption 1: individuals access to private info

Assumption 2:incentives to mispresepresnt that info

EX — George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq

What is the Psychological Theory of War?

Different leaders produces different outcomes and thos are significan enough to have a casual effect on the probability of war

Ex. Al Gore and George W Bush → had Al Gore been elected president in 2000, then the US would not have gone to war with Iraq

Issue here with the defensive reality theory of War → would be intense domestic pressure to after 9/11

What is the liberal theory of war (peace)?

Democratic Peace Theory

Argues that democracies rarely fight eachother

Ex, US and Canada’s relatrionsgip → with heavy disagreements and a long border, they have never fought a war

Model of Insitituitonal Constraints

Certain political institionals, check and balances, the decentralitation of power, and the free press prevent poltiitcal leaders from taking yunilateral military action

Ensure open public debate thereofr erequirting leaders to have a broad base of public support because adapting policy

Ex. Finland and SAweden’s tension over fishing policy in the Gulf of Bothnia → both pushing for different policy over quotas

Sny significant change to quotas or environment policies must be approves by both parliments in order to prevents quick solutions

What is the Selectorate model of war?

Political survials is the primary goal of politial leaders → war is costly and investing in it is base don the economic gains of success or loss of loss

Engage in wars they are confident in

Ex. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait (1990) → Sadam Hussain’s goal was to strengthen his poltifcal office by appealing to the elites who put him in power → Kuwait wasn’t able to counter the expansionism, even with their wealth, making them an easy target

What is the Theory of Economic Independence and Peace?

Trade generates economic benefits → anticipation of war disrupts trade and leads to loss in the gains from trade, deters leaders from taking actions that could lead to war

Ex. Kissinger (fuck this war criminal fucker) –→ goes to China, idea that if US trades with China, then there’s less of a likelihood that they would go to war

What is violence?

Violence in conflict is premediatied and purposeful → violence is a means to an end.

Underlying all causes of conflict → assumption that conflict is rational (from POV of the perpetrator

Is violence/conflict rational?

Conflict does not seem rational → our tendency to study witt his bias downplays the severity of violence and the resistance

Lee Ann Fuhii → the rational for the violence in Rwanda

Individuals in Rwanda did not decide to randomly kill their neighbours

When indicuals/states decide to perpetuate cioelnce, they have used tools to rationalized it

Tools could be territory, land, resources, climate, ethnicity

What is ethnicity?

ethnicity is colour, language, religion, or some other attribute of common origin

How does ethnicity become a tool for conflict?

Ethnic conflict comes at the idea of terrirorial vultrabilty, perceived or real threats the to the physical homeland

What is essentialism?

Ethnicities are historically rooted → result of ethnic resistance that decolonization of nations from within their territories

Has been criticised → cannot account for variation → how come the conflicts are happening only now?

A lot of ethnic confluct in the world doesn’t have anything to with historical grievances

Modernity changed the meaning of ethnicity, so it’s not history that creating ethnic tension

What is Instrumentalism?

Ehnicicy is neither inhenery not valuable to human nature → masks the want for political power or drawing recources from the states

Conflic happens because leaders manipulate ethnicity of power

Also criticised heavily

Can’t explain why ethnicity is important to poltiivs or why we but into this

Assumes that ethnicity is important, but doen’t explain why

What is constructivism?

Ethnic and national identities are contrasts of the modern epoch (Varshney)

Ex. the last name Smith came from a social identity in Engalnd that said they worked with Iron → we didn’t knwo where they were from in Englands, only their work

If Smith goes to brazil, they don’t know what that means. Therefore, they just become British → happens with modernity

Criticism → no explanation as to why ethnicities go into conflict with each other

What is Institutionalism?

Designs of poltiical instutuosn explain why some multiethnic societies have violence and others have peace

→ if we can explain ethnic conflict trhough institutions, ehtnic peace requires poltiical distance from

What is Realism (in terms of ethnic conflict)

When an existing state collapsing relations between ethnic groups resemble those between states in the international system

Difference between defensive and offensive goes away

What does John Galtung say about peace?

Peace is not to be studied in relation to war, but in relation to violence

What is positive peace?

even if there is no personal violence, there may be structural vioelnce, hard through social structures

What is negative peace?

presence of social justice. absence of both personal and structural violence

What is the liberal peace?

the idea that liberal poltitical/economic principles are the roots of peacebuilding and conflict resolution

What are the five pillars of the Liberal Peace?

Democratic Governance → free and fair elections, accountability, rule of law

Market Economy → economic interdependence and prosperity

Human Rights and the Rule of Law → political rights are respected and citizens are treated fairly → gives legiticmany to state

International Intsititons and Cooperation → much less likely to go to war with someone hwo you have ties with

Nation Building and Reform (Developement) → if we invest in out countires and build strong institutions, we will be more resilient

What are the issues with these 5 pillars?

Overlooks informal social process/local traditions that are needed for sustainable peace