Scribd
Upload
15 views18 pages

W3L2 - War and Peace Lecture

Uploaded by

olennon755
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
15 views18 pages

W3L2 - War and Peace Lecture

Uploaded by

olennon755
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

PAI 1006 1

WORLD POLITICS: WAR AND


PEACE

Week 3, Lecture 2
Power, Representation & War:
War & Peace
Dr Aishling Mc Morrow
a.mcmorrow@qub.ac.uk
RECAP
• Marxism (Lenin, Gramsci, NeoMarxists)
• Constructivism (Wendt)
• Poststructuralism (Foucault, Butler, Derrida)
• Postcolonialism (Said, Bhaba)
• Feminism (Enloe, Butler)
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• International Relations is, in many ways, the study of war and peace
• About preventing or managing war, and achieving (or managing peace)

• How can we define war?

• How can we define peace?


WAR AND PEACE

• How can we define war?


• Organized violence between
two political actors (?):
international, civil and ‘new’
wars

• +1000 deaths (the UN)

• The continuation of politics by


other means (Clausewitz, 1881)
WAR AND PEACE

• How can we define peace? • War can be understood as conflict


in the system or breakdown of the
system
• An absence of violence? An
absence of conflict?
Peace becomes, then, stability
• Order and stability? of the system

• Achievement of human potential


• How does this relate to civil war?
and cooperation?
• To ethnic conflict?
• To ‘new wars’?
• Does war necessarily entail
violence?
• What about colonialism?
• Settler vs. non-settler colonialism =
direct vs indirect rule
TYPES OF
• Indirect rule:
COLONIALISM – • One of the most striking
HOW WERE characteristics of Europe’s imperialism
in Africa was the tiny amount of
COUNTRIES resources devoted to it; this was
BEING RULED? “colonialism-on-the-cheap”

• At the peak of empire there were


barely 3,000 European administrators
ruling over an African population
approaching 90 million
• This ‘thin white line’ was
forced to rule indirectly
through pre-existing
institutions such as
chieftainship and
customary law

• Why did chiefs (etc.)


agree?

• What else helped the


European colonial officials pictured with native chiefs in colonisers maintain
Sierra Leone, 1934 indirect control?
Divide and rule techniques
DIRECT RULE (SETTLER
COLONIALISM)
• Settlers come to stay – not like other colonial actors such as traders,
governors, soldiers etc.

• It is the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler


society who now assert sovereignty in an ongoing process.

• Ultimately leads towards the end of colonisation… but not through


decolonisation.

• Aim = an unchallenged settler state. Indigenous peoples are


marginalised (or worse), with no claims to lands
Inter-state conflict
involves military and
non-military based
scenarios

• Confrontation
between states
• Great power
competition (realist)
• Disputes resolved by
military means
• Wars of a physical
nature, of various
scales
INTER-STATE CONFLICT: • Interdependent
THE OLD STORY world: inter-state
conflict reduced
WAR IN THE 20TH CENTURY

• WWI brought the world to an end


• The war to end all wars: changed all the rules

• Introduced TOTAL WAR


• Industry and technology played key role – (Marxism)
• Utterly devastating: a zero-sum game

• Resulted FROM the balance of power, not in spite of it


WORLD WAR II

• A continuation of WWI, bolstering the Realist perspective


and ending Idealism
• Marked the complete failure of the League of Nations, but
brought about the UN and international legal frameworks

 Introduced culture and


identity as defining features:
The Holocaust

 Integrated the economy as


a central part of warfare
THE COLD WAR

• Framed in ideological terms, fought in propaganda


(Constructivism)
• About soft power AND hard power

• Characterized by stalemate: The stakes were too high

• Changed the role of war as an instrument of policy


• Economic (trade)
interdependency

WHAT HAS • Costs - material and otherwise


CAUSED THE
DECREASE OF • The increasing level of
preventative means i.e.
INTERSTATE preventative diplomacy
CONFLICTS?
• Peacekeeping and peacekeeping
operations

• Generational change (based on


values, beliefs, norms)
• Wider causes can be complex - often
based on religious, tribal, ethnic
rivalries and hatreds but there are
AND THE many more reasons too.

INCREASE OF • E.g. territorial claims within states


INTRA-STATE (especially post- decolonization)

CONFLICTS? • Globalisation and the search for


power
• New links to external ideologies (e.g.
extremist views)
• Increased access to finance and
weaponry
• Competition for resources – due to
decreasing resources (e.g.
environmental) or more potential for
external wealth flowing into the country
“NEW WARS”: ACTORS,
GOALS, METHODS, MONEY

• Actors: state militaries (old wars) vs. networks


(new wars)

• Goals Geopolitical interests or ideology (old


wars) vs. identity (new wars)

• Identity politics has a different logic –for


particular groups to access the state in their
own interests(new wars) rather than broader
public interest ambitions (old wars)
• Methods: battle (old wars) vs
fear/terror (new wars).
• Victims of new wars are
civilians, and they’re targeted
on purpose.

• Finance: states through


taxation (old wars) vs shadow
economies (new wars).
• Again – victims of financing are
civilians in new wars.
GLOBALIZATION AND TERROR

• Has developed a global reach, with greater destructive potential


• Development of information technologies
• Increased mobility across borders: CHALLENGE to borders?

• Terror often moves faster than legislation, policing, counterterrorism…


THE RETURN OF
THE STATE
• The discourse of war reaffirms the role of
the state

• A renewed focus on borders, fences,


containment

• Lacking a global government, the state


remains the central actor and determinant of
security

• Today: unequal application of rules based


order

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy