War and its Causes

 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:
 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.
 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 Europ
 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.
 Scholars generally describe five types of war:
 Total war
 Limited war
 Guerrilla war
 Civil war
 Proxy wa
 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 Kuwai
 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.