War and Conflict

11 Key excerpts on "War and Conflict"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology, 2v

  • William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, Author(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  As we see, the generic concept of war has taken on many meanings and connotations that still shape its use today: it can be seen as a state of hostility (which partially justifies the notion of Cold War), as a practice of large-scale organizational violence (hence the ministries or departments of war in charge of preparing and organizing this category of statecraft), as a relational process linked to reciprocal enmity (war as a dialectic of wills) and as a set of recurring yet singular historical events (first world war, second world war). All of these dimensions come together in our archetypical representations of war.

  While the use of the concept of war would maybe be more precise if restricted to situations in which all these dimensions are simultaneously present, such a move would also entail significant risks of ethnocentrism: the strict distinction between the battle and war, the institutionalized rules of war and their violations, times of peace and times of war, political and military units and so on are all but universal (Keegan, 1993). This is arguably the main reason for which many quantitative scholars prefer terms carrying less historical connotations such as ‘armed conflict'. One can however also interpret this multidimensionality flexibly, by considering these connotations as part of the contemporary legacy of war and hence as virtually present (but not necessarily actualized) in current strategic thinking and practice (Bonditti & Olsson, 2016). Moreover, there is no denying that the discrepancies between the subjective representations and objective realities of war are a central aspect of the object itself rather than a purely contingent feature of war (Barkawi & Brighton, 2011).

  While not reducible to organized reciprocal violence between political groups, we will however here consider the latter element to constitute the most stable and central aspects of war.

  War, Violence and Conflict

  To the limited extent that war is dealt with in sociology, it is often through related terms such as conflict, organized violence or collective violence (Joas & Knöbl, 2013). We therefore want to build on these concepts to situate war both as a specific phenomenon (at least as ideal-type) and as part of wider conceptual continua.

  Let us start by situating war in relation to conflict. War in principle unfolds in the context of a wider conflict understood as a relation of reciprocal opposition between two or more actors leading to strategic interactions between them. Conflict might arise when social agents pursue incompatible objectives, but it nearly always is also tied up with relationally constituted identities, identities defining Self in relation and in opposition to Other. By no means do conflicts need to involve physical violence. Most conflicts, from labour conflicts to conflicts between political party-leaders in democratic systems, are usually non-violent. At the same time, violence can erupt independently from any pre-existing conflict for example in the case of genocide, one sided assaults etc. There is however an elective affinity between conflict and physical violence. Indeed, among the ways in which a conflict can be settled (negotiation, arbitration, court ruling, flipping a coin), physical violence is the only that does not suppose a basic trust that the Other will stick to commitments (Vasquez, 2009). In this paradoxical sense, war can also be seen as a last-resort mechanism of conflict-resolution when all other such mechanisms have failed (Holsti, 1996; Luttwak, 1999).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  What Is War For?

  • Jack McDonald(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Bristol University Press

    (Publisher)

  1 Second, wars require significant social coordination in terms of organization and planning, even if confusion and disorganization have been a hallmark of conflict throughout history. The ability to effectively recruit, train, equip and supply a military force is essential to avoiding catastrophic defeat. Third, war occurs when the threat or use of armed force against opponents is met by an armed response. One-sided violence and repression are important aspects of war, but conceptually war requires at least some armed resistance from an opponent. Fourth, war is accepted (at least by those who wage it) as a legitimate activity, even though much of what is done in war violates social norms in peacetime. Fifth, war is usually distinguished from everyday life – times of peace – though what differentiates the two has changed over history. Lastly, war is a socially sanctioned activity, even if what justifies the resort to war has changed over time. In some times and places, war has been a legitimate means for rulers to right perceived wrongs; today, at least in theory, it’s only acceptable in self-defence.

  Taken together, on a social level war is not just about fighting, but how this violence is understood by participants and their societies – and between opponents – as war. This matters because what counts as legitimate military activity in war has changed over time. The legitimacy of force also depends on the relationship between warring parties. After all, the course and experience of war can reshape how societies understand the limits of legitimate violence in war. One problem this raises is that there are forms of violence that have historically been included within the scope of war that are now excluded. What is now commonly understood as war is a public form of violence, directed and waged by political leaders who represent social groups or communities, ostensibly on their behalf and for their benefit. But in history, private wars, directed by individuals for personal gain and benefit, were common in Europe.2

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  War in the Modern Great Power System

  1495–1975

  • Jack S. Levy(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • The University Press of Kentucky

    (Publisher)

  3

  Definition and Identification of the Wars

  In previous chapters I established the need for a systematic empirical study of war among the Great Powers over an extended temporal span and suggested that existing compilations of war data are not adequate for this purpose. The aim in this chapter is to define war and suggest operational criteria for the identification of all wars involving the Great Powers in the modern system. A detailed treatment of these criteria of inclusion and exclusion is necessary because in their absence no empirical study of war can be truly systematic. Problems involving the initiation and termination dates of war and the question of the aggregation or disaggregation of multiple wars are also examined. Because no study of this nature can be perfectly objective, it is necessary to acknowledge some of the biases inherent in these data-generation procedures.

  Definition of War

  Before operational criteria for the identification of wars can be established it is necessary to define war conceptually. One of the most useful definitions is that suggested by Bronislow Malinowski: war is an “armed contest between two independent political units, by means of organized military force, in the pursuit of a tribal or national policy.”1 This definition avoids the serious problems that arise from legalistic definitions of war such as Wright’s.2 It recognizes that the essence of war is armed conflict involving the organized military forces of well-defined political entities. Malinowski’s definition, however, does not take into account a minimum threshold of conflict or violence as a prerequisite for war and hence fails to differentiate between wars and uses of force short of war such as border incidents or limited punitive strikes. In addition, the inclusion of the Clausewitzian concept of the pursuit of national policy, unless defined very broadly, would exclude conflicts initiated primarily for domestic political or even personal reasons. War must be defined independently of its motivations or other causes (or consequences), for otherwise hypotheses regarding the causes or consequences of war would be reduced to tautologies and made untestable. Therefore, this study defines war as a substantial armed conflict between the organized military forces of independent political units.3

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  International Relations

  A Handbook of Current Theory

  • Margot Light, A.J.R. Groom(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  The amount of work going on, and the new lines of thought being pursued is, one suspects, a reflection of the realization that conflict, in its many forms, is a permanent feature of human society, and a highly complex feature at that Bibliography to Chapter 9 1. Alper, B.S. & Nicholls, L.T. Beyond the Courtroom. Lexington, MA, Lexington Books, 1981. 2. Ashley, R.K. The Political Economy of War and Peace: The Sino-Soviet-American Triangle and the Modern Security Problematique. London, Frances Pinter and New York, Nichols, 1980. 3. Ash more, H.S. & Baggs, W.C. Mission to Hanoi. New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968. 4. Bailey, S.D. How Wars End (2 volumes). London & New York, Oxford University Press, 1982. 5. Baldwin, D. A 'Power and Social Exchange'. American Political Science Renew, vol. LXXII, no. 4, 1978, pp. 1229-42. 6. The Power of Positive Sanctions'. World Politics, vol. XXIV, no. 1, 1971, pp. 19-38. 134 CR Mitchell 7. Barringer, RE. War: Patterns of Conflict (2 volumes). Cambridge, MA, & London, MIT Press, 1972. 8. Beer, F.A How Much War In History: Definitions, Estimates, Extra-polations and Trends. Beverly Hills, CA & London, Sage, 1974. 9. Peace Against War. San Francisco & Oxford, W.H. Freeman, 1981. 10. Bercovitch, J. Social Conflicts and Third Parties. Boulder, CO, Westview, 1984. 11. Berkowitz, L. Aggression: A Social-Psychological Analysis. New York & Maidenhead, McGraw Hill, 1962. 12. Berman, M.R & Johnson, J.E. (eds), Unofficial Diplomats. New York & Guildford, Columbia University Press, 1977. 13. Bernard, J. The Sociological Study of Conflict. In The Nature of Conflict. Paris, UNESCO, 1957, pp. 33-117. 14. Blainey, G. The Causes of War. London, Macmillan and New York, Free Press, 1975. 15. Blechman, B.M. & Kaplan, S.S. Force Without War. Washington, DC, The Brookings Institute, 1979. 16. Bomers, G.B.J. & Petterson, RB. (eds), Conflict Management in Industrial Relations. The Hague, London, Boston, Kluwer-Nijhof, 1982. 17. Bonoma, T.V.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  International Relations

  A Beginner's Guide

  • Charles Jones(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Oneworld Publications

    (Publisher)

  4 Armed conflict

  When differences run deep and negotiations fail, violence sometimes seems the only way to resolve conflict. When those who resort to the use of force command large organized groups, we call it war. War between modern states was a principal stimulus for systematic study of international relations in the twentieth century; thoughts about how to conduct, avert, and regulate conventional wars has been at the heart of IR from the start. But not much can be said with precision about war unless it is clear what counts as a war and what does not.

  That phrase, ‘conventional war’, fuses two quite distinct ideas. The first is war between well-constituted states. The second is a struggle between and more or less evenly matched forces, each using similar tactics and weapons. By this definition, the War on Terror waged by the USA and its allies after the 9/11 bombings of 2001 was no more a proper war than recent gang warfare in Mexico, because al-Qaeda is not a state, the forces in play are highly asymmetrical, and the means employed by the two sides very different. But extension of the term ‘war’ to cover all and any large-scale manifestations of public violence recovers earlier practice, which was to distinguish between public and private wars: the first between sovereign states and the second between lesser authorities or between a state and a non-state actor.

  Figure 7 Inter-state wars since 1945

  Source : Correlates of War 2010 list at http://www.correlatesofwar.org .

  War, in this broad sense, has been endemic since the beginning of history. It has certainly been frequent in recent times. Various estimates have been attempted for different time spans. One authoritative list of conventional wars since 1945 is offered in Figure 7. The most remarkable feature of this list is the absence of direct wars between major powers. The second is that it includes some wars widely familiar to US and European publics and others few will have heard of. Up to 1991 proxy wars between client states of the USA and the Soviet Union commanded the attention of global media because of their relevance to superpower strategic rivalry and they accordingly dominated public perceptions in the West. Western reliance on oil and the sustained attachment of the USA to Israel have meant that wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 received especially close scrutiny, as did those between Iraq and its neighbours (1980–88, 1990–91). The first of these, between Iraq and Iran, is perhaps the clearest recent example of a sustained conventional war. Proximity and, later, flows of migrants and direct engagement of Western troops account for European and US concern over the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  War and the Transformation of Global Politics

  • V. Jabri(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  The themes that can be highlighted at this early stage centre on the mechanisms of power, its material basis, the implications of discourse and linguistic construction, the significance of cultural difference, the significance of race and racism, the implications of a twenty-first century form of colonialism, and the discourses of peace surrounding the war. The meaning we accrue to war is hence imbued with epistemological and ontological controversies, controversies that see their parallels in considerations of how war relates to the realm of politics. Any meaning that is given to war in any particular rendition on war is itself steeped in the politics of the present and all elements that tend to be taken as given. In this particular study, war is, as far as possible, understood in distinctly social terms, suggesting war’s location in society and its con- stitution. War is hence not some extra-social element that takes place outside society, but is rather both its product and implicated in its formation and transformation. War, in other words, has a recursive relationship to society. The temporality and spatiality of war is significant and how these boundaries are drawn immediately focuses attention on the political implications of such epistemological deci- sions. As we have argued above, war is constitutively injurious, cor- poreal, and societal. Each element points to war’s location in relation to social and political transformations. However, prior to the consider- ation of war’s transformative potential, how war relates to the societal is important and must be highlighted. What can immediately be stated is that war draws immediate social meaning and such meaning is itself steeped in the historical trajectory of those involved.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Global Politics in the 21st Century

  • Robert J. Jackson(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Give them their meaning.” Chapter 10 examines civil wars and insurgencies, in particular the ongoing violent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and elsewhere in North Africa. It deals with failing states such as Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan, as well as the role of private armies and new technologies such as drones. Chapter 11 focuses on terrorism and counterterrorism, including nuclear terrorism, and novel issues relating to al-Qaeda, enemy combatants, Yemen as a terrorist haven, modern-day pirates, and suicide bombers. 1 The New York Times , December 1, 2009. 9 War Causes, conduct, and consequences Since no ultimate international authority is in place to enforce the will of the majority of the world’s seven billion people, international politics is largely about the capacities and relative powers of the individual states that constitute the global system. Conflict between and among states emerges when interests are challenged and states respond by exercising power in bargaining situations or, occasionally, by threaten-ing or engaging in military confrontation. The search for security is never ending. A writer of the Roman Empire, Vegetius, once recommended, si vis pacem para bellum , “if you desire peace, prepare for war.” In fact, it might be said that states prepare for conflict more than they do for peace and harmony. It is unfor-tunate that governments often misuse the concept of war for rhetorical purposes – as when they speak of a war on drugs, poverty, or terrorists – a practice that does little to illuminate the nature of war. This chapter builds on the concepts of old and new security dilemmas to discuss what happens when security fails. Violent state conflicts are frequent, and come in many types, but here we focus primarily on those between and among states.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Sustainable Development and Peace

  A Study in Sociological Theory

  • Romina Gurashi(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2 Peace and war in sociological theory

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003353195-3

  2.1 Peace and war in sociology classics

  While, therefore, the first pacifist movements were ethical-religious in nature, we must not forget to focus on the fact that the emergence of these phenomena coincided with the development of capitalism and the construction of an international system of states. From a philosophical perspective, this entailed the flourishing of writings on the relationship between power, the state and sovereignty, with a focus on the relationship between the democratic form of government and the libertarian and liberal dimension, while from a sociological perspective, this entailed the flourishing of works concerning the industrial society in relation to their economic function.

  What needs to be emphasised here is that in classical sociological thought it is very difficult to identify a genuine interest in developing autonomous theories on social conflict, war or peace, and even less is it possible to identify schools of thought or more or less broad strands of study in this regard. What we can certainly do is try to identify within the theories on society, social change or deviance, by the various classical authors’ common features, points of agreement or disagreement that can give us an idea of their place in the events of their time.

  With the exception of Karl Marx, we do not find in the classics a real interest in developing a sociology of conflict or even strands of peace studies. On the contrary, in scholars who refer to an organicist conception, first, or a functionalist one, later, we find a generic consideration of conflict as an element of social imbalance or as a real pathology hindering an orderly development of society. These theoretical orientations were influenced by the role played by faith in the development of a scientific understanding of society and the faith attributed to science and technological development in the creation of a “perfect society”, that is a peaceful, orderly society founded on well-being, harmony and concord.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Society on the Edge

  Social Science and Public Policy in the Postwar United States

  • Philippe Fontaine, Jefferson D. Pooley(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  This remains true today. Aside from the largely marginalized field of peace studies, war – whether framed as a social or security problem – is no longer a central concern for other social science disciplines. Nor is peace. In academic and policy circles, the suggestion that social science can eliminate war is treated as nothing short of preposterous. While these shifts may reflect a laudable reduction in the hubris – not to mention hypocrisy – of the social science of war, they also reflect the dramatic hold that national security has over political thought and practice. 96 Horton and Leslie, Sociology of Social Problems, 462–63. 97 Horton and Leslie, Sociology of Social Problems, 462–63. Joy Rohde 382 While methodological similarities tie the interwar traditions of Morgenthau, Wright, and others to contemporary neorealism, the ideological goals that motivated the social problems’ framing have faded away. Few mainstream international relations scholars or practitioners see permanent peace as a pragmatic pursuit. The study of war continues to be framed in the context of security, statecraft, and the management of conflict in ways that accord with the political status quo. Without a powerful political, financial, and intellectual push in a different direction, the conviction that social science – and political science in particular – is a valuable managerial tool for violence as an instrument of statecraft is here to stay. Bibliography Amadae, S. M. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Amadae, S. M. Prisoners of Reason: Game Theory and Neoliberal Political Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Angell, Robert C. “Sociology and the World Crisis.” American Sociological Review 16, no. 6 (1951): 749–57. Ayson, Robert. Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age: Strategy as Social Science. London: Frank Cass, 2004. Azar, Edward E., and Joseph D.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Peace, Security and Post-conflict Recons

  • Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Codesria

    (Publisher)

  These theories explain the origins of conflicts, their causes and manifestations, their trajectories and their social, cultural and economic implications at the individual, group, country, regional and international levels. The location of the conflict culturally, sociologically, economically and politically through a theoretical analytical framework is likely to inform us how the conflict might be resolved. Thus, the nature of the explanations would provide knowledge and embody assumptions about how to proceed in changing a conflicting situation. This chapter identifies and broadly examines elements of major theories that are used more specifically in the social sciences and humanities to explain how they deal with the origins of conflicts, their manifestations, both human and material resources, agencies and their ideological base, if any. The main questions about dealing with theories of conflicts are: (1) Why do conflicts occur? (2) How do they occur? (3) Who are their agents and what are their agencies? (4) How are they managed? (5) What resources are used to advance them? (6) What are their intended and non-intended consequences? Finally, (7) Can they be prevented both in the short as well as in the long run? In general, all theories of conflict address most of these questions though this may not be in order listed here. It should also be emphasised that there are weak and strong theories of conflict. The ‘weakness’ and ‘strength’ of the theories depend very much on the schools of thought in which one is located. Weak theories are those that do not take seriously the context in its holistic manner. They do not pay enough attention to conditions that led to conflict. These theories are not sufficiently testable and not strongly applicable because they lack rigorous and systematic logic of explanation. Lumumba-Kasongo: Contemporary Theories of Conflict 31 When theories are not capable of explaining what is being analysed, they become irrelevant.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  An Introduction to Global Studies

  • Patricia J. Campbell, Aran MacKinnon, Christy R. Stevens(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people living in poverty is anticipated to grow from 316 million in 1999 to 404 million by 2015. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in this region, though other health problems, including malaria and tuberculosis also threaten the population. Clearly, these are serious problems that will take a tremendous amount of resources to address. And yet between 1995 and 2001, this region saw a 47 percent increase in military expenditures. Although poverty is caused by a variety of complex factors, government spending on the military simply means that there is less money out of an already inadequate supply for health, education, development, and other poverty reduction projects. 208 Conclusion Definitions of war vary, ranging from state-centered definitions that view war as a violent conflict between states to broader definitions that include the actions of non-state actors, such as rebel groups and terrorists. The work of anthropologists, pre-historians, historians, and evolutionary biologists all suggest that war and violent conflict have been constants in most human societies, dating back to our earliest human ancestors. Answers to the question “What causes war?” are multiple and varied, influenced heavily by the academic and theoretical framework used to approach the question. While competition over resources may be at the root of many, if not most, conflicts, it is also important to recognize that different types of wars (e.g., civil wars as opposed to international wars) are often caused by different factors. To understand why such wars begin and how they might be prevented, these types of differences must be examined. When war cannot be prevented, international law delineates proper conduct during war

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book