WAR

Human Sins
WAR
• War has been far too common in human history and thus is the
central problem of international relations. Many political scientists
and foreign policymakers view war as the continuation of politics:
When diplomacy fails, some states decide to use force. Others see
war as the result of a breakdown of the modern international
system because so many of the rules of international institutions
were designed to reduce conflict among states.
The Geneva Conventions
• In 1864, several states created an international agreement that
regulated acceptable behavior during war and armed conflicts.
Since then, the Geneva Conventions have been amended in 1906,
1929, and 1949 as the nature of war and warfare has changed. The
agreements prohibit torture, rape, genocide, mutilation, slavery, and
other crimes against humanity. The conventions also state that
prisoners of war must be treated humanely and that civilians may
not be used as hostages.
Causes of War

• Political scientists have long debated the causes of war. These

scholars have come up with the following list:
Causes of War

• Human nature: Humans are naturally violent and aggressive, making

war inevitable.
• Regime types: Some regimes are more prone to waging war than
others.
• Example: There has been extensive research on whether
democracies are less likely to start wars than other regimes.
Overall, it appears that democracies are less likely to fight other
democracies, a phenomenon scholars refer to as the democratic
peace. Democracies are, however, just as likely as other types of
regimes to fight nondemocracies.
Causes of War

• Ideology: Some political beliefs favor war more than

others. Some scholars blame fascism, for example, for
World War II.
• Religion: Religious belief has driven many states to
war, either to spread the faith or to eradicate heretics.
• Example: During the early modern era, nearly every
European country experienced numerous wars of
religion as the Catholics sought to destroy the
Protestants. The wars of religion culminated in the
Thirty Years’ War, which stretched from Spain and
France to the eastern stretches of Germany during the
seventeenth century. It was a brutal and horrific war,
and the Catholics’ failure to win the war marked the
end of the major religious wars in Europe.
Causes of War
• The global system: Because the global system is anarchic, states must
engage in war to protect themselves.
• Economics and resources: Disputes over resources often lead to war.
 Just-War Theory
• Debate has raged as long as wars have been
fought as to whether a war can be morally
just. Some prominent thinkers have proposed
a just-war theory, which argues that wars
should be fought for noble and worthwhile
reasons. Just-war theorists also try to
establish ethical rules for warfare. Of
course, whether any war is justified is
almost always a matter of debate. But most
just-war theorists agree on some basic
ideas:
• War must be the last option. All peaceful means to
resolve the conflict must be exhausted before war
breaks out.
• The cause of the war must be just (such as
overturning aggression and righting a great wrong).
• The war must be winnable.
• The war’s purpose must justify the cost in money
and lives.
• The military must make every effort to prevent or
limit civilian casualties.
“The Good War”

• World War II is one of the few wars that nearly

everyone believes was morally justified. Nazi
Germany and Japan were dangerous regimes that
committed atrocities against conquered peoples, and
many nations felt that they needed to be stopped.
For these reasons, some refer to World War II as
“the good war.” In contrast, the social and political
turmoil caused by the Vietnam War was based, in
part, on debate over whether that war was justified.
Types of War

• Although all wars are violent, not

all wars are the same. In fact, there
are many different types of wars,
which can be classified according to
which people actually fight, the
intensity of the conflict, and the
extent of combatants’ use of
violence, among other factors.
 Types of War
• Scholars generally describe five types of war:
• Total war
• Limited war
• Guerrilla war
• Civil war
• Proxy war
Total War

• A total war is a war in which combatants use every

resource available to destroy the social fabric of
the enemy. Total wars are highly destructive and
are characterized by mass civilian casualties
because winning a total war often requires
combatants to break the people’s will to continue
fighting. World Wars I and II were total wars,
marked by the complete destruction of the civilian
economy and society in many countries, including
France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Italy, Great
Britain, and Japan.
Limited War
• A limited war is a war fought primarily between
professional armies to achieve specific political
objectives without causing widespread destruction.
Although the total of civilian casualties may be
high, combatants do not seek to completely
destroy the enemy’s social and economic
frameworks. The Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991
was a limited war in which the United States and
its allies forcibly removed Iraqi troops from Kuwait
Guerrilla War
• A guerrilla war is a war in which one or both
combatants use small, lightly armed militia units
rather than professional, organized armies.
Guerrilla fighters usually seek to topple their
government, often enjoying the support of the
people. These wars are often very long but also
tend to be successful for the insurgents as
evidenced by Mao Zedong’s victory over Chiang
Kai-shek in China in the 1940s, the Vietcong’s
victory over the United States in the Vietnam War,
and the Mujahideen’s victory over the Soviet Union
in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Civil War

• A civil war is a war fought within a single country

between or among different groups of citizens who
want to control the government and do not
recognize another group’s right to rule. Civil wars
are almost always total wars because each side
feels compelled to destroy the enemy’s political
support base. Regional rifts, such as the American
Civil War between the North and the South,
characterize some civil wars, whereas other civil
wars have been fought among ethnic rivals,
religious rivals, and rival clans. Revolutions can
spark civil wars as well.
Proxy War

• A proxy war is a war fought by third parties rather

than by the enemy states themselves. Many of the
militarized conflicts during the Cold War, such as
the Korean War and the Vietnam
• War, can be interpreted as proxy wars between the
United States and the Soviet Union, neither of
which wanted to fight each other directly.
Categorizing Wars
• A war can often be a limited war, a guerrilla
war, and a civil war all at the same time. The
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 is a
great example. The United States sent
trainers, money, and weapons to Afghan
rebels to fight against the invaders, making
it a low-intensity, limited conflict from the U.S.
point of view. The Afghan resistance mostly
relied on guerrilla tactics. And the war split
Afghanistan, so it was also a civil war.
Intervention
• Intervention is a fairly common way for a third-party state to get
involved in a civil war or a war between two or more other states. A
state intervenes when it sends troops, arms, money, or goods to help
another state that is already at war. During the Cold War, the term
intervention was used to describe one of the superpowers becoming
involved in a smaller country’s war (often a developing country).
• But states sometimes intervene in order to bring peace. This type of
intervention occurs when a country (or countries) sends military
forces into another state to act as peacekeepers or to block other
forces from attacking. Sometimes these interventions are organized
or conducted by the United Nations or another international
governmental organization.
 Example
• The United States, along with other NATO nations, sent troops into
the former Yugoslavia on a number of occasions to protect people
from war. A successful example of this peaceful intervention occurred
during the 1999 U.S. bombing campaign in Kosovo, which helped stop
a slaughter of Kosovars by attacking Serbs. A less successful example
was the U.S. intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s, an attempt to
provide humanitarian aid that ultimately achieved little at the cost of
American lives. This failed intervention culminated in the Battle of
Mogadishu (dramatized in the movie Black Hawk Down [2001])
October 3–4, 1993, which killed eighteen Americans and as many as a
thousand Somalis.
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