Argumentative Essay
It is next
impossible for an individual to claim that they fully comprehend peace if they
have not yet disambiguated the concept of war. For a very long time now the
concept of war has attracted the interest of scholars, especially in the
international relations arena. War refers to the premeditated meting out of
violence by structured human groups. It is usually easy to detect and
disambiguate all out military offensives launched by particular nations on
others. The nature of war is not always political as has been argued by some
thinkers such as Gray. On the contrary, the character of war in the
contemporary society has greatly transformed with the wars being witnessed in
the contemporary day indicating a great propensity towards being cultural,
social and economic. It is noteworthy that apart from the political
aspect of war, there are other dimensions such as the social and economic ones.
As a matter of fact, unlike the Cold War and the World Wars which were caused
by predominantly political reasons, many of the contemporary day wars or
threats of war are closely linked to social and economic reasons. There are a
variety of forces that have brought about changes in the nature of war; such
forces include democracy, rate of globalization and the formation of
establishments that make it almost impossible for nations to engage in war.
[1]Gray claims that the
nature of war all warfare that is instigated by mankind is about politics.
According to him only politics has the propensity to cause the massive loss of
life and property that is usually witnessed in the occurrence of a war. The
principle behind this assertion is the fact that for any form of aggression to
be instigated, Gary argues that there must be a structuring of people who are
tied by a common cause for meting out the aggression. According to such an
argument, whether the common cause is social, cultural or spiritual, it is
perceived as being ultimately political. This however fallacious; not all the
structured groups in human civilization are driven by political reasons or ties
to commit aggression. More often than not, political warfare necessitates that
there be two or more warring sides who engage in an all out offensive against
each other. The forms of aggressions being witnessed today are mostly
sanctioned by ethnic factions or financial divisions in society.
[2]The modern wars
being witnessed in the 21st century are more social than political
in nature. Many of the root causes of these wars are linked to social
injustices and inequalities which the warring groups are confronted with. These
social inequalities and injustices lead to stratifications in the societies
between those considered to be of high social status and the ones below.
According to the Marxist principles, the oppressed realized that they are being
trodden down upon and respond by retaliating.[3]
Minorities who feel that they are neither discriminated upon nor treated
unevenly as compared to the majority group are less likely to instigate any
forms of aggression as compared to those that feel they are unfairly treated.
In the late years of the 20th century, the political administration
of the United States of America had to reassess and advance the rights of
marginalized groups in Eastern Europe so as to avoid a civil war. In the year
2007-2008, the US administration in collaboration with the UN had to intervene
in the Kenyan situation so as to abate the social inequalities that are
believed to cause the 2007-2008 post election violence in which many lives were
lost and much property destroyed.
[4]The nature of war is
not always political due to the fact that it has a cultural dimension to it;
the unmanaged socio-cultural discrepancies that exist between diverse peoples
and state have been known to be the very instrumental towards causing violence
or war. As a matter of fact, rather be political, most of the greatest wars in
the history of human civilization have been caused by the racial, national and
religious discrepancies that exist amongst the different peoples of the world.
The persecutions that the Jews have gone through over the years such as the
Inquisition, Pogroms, Black Plaque and the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazi
Germans were very cultural in nature.
Such cultural wars or genocides were fuelled by the occurrence of one culture
perceiving itself as being superior to another. Hitler was convinced of the
German’s superiority to the Jews in every aspect, especially the cultural one.
According to him, the Jews were an evil lot, who if not speedily annihilated
had the propensity to contaminate the purity of the Germans.[5]
[6]In the modern day
the issue of terrorism, believed to be funded by some wayward Arab nations is
more of a socio-cultural and religious aspect than the political nature that [7]Gary
argues is inherent of all wars. What many of these Islamic countries are
protesting against, although in very undiplomatic techniques, is the
westernization (read Americanization) of the world which is taking place as a
consequence of globalization. In their efforts to keep their religion and
social cultural ways of life ‘pure’ and unadulterated by the ‘evil’ western
influences, the radical groups from the Islamic nations are willing to do
anything. America and all other nations that are allied to it are thus
perceived as enemies who should be annihilated and their ‘evil influences’ on a
‘pure’ culture brought to a stop. Despite the fact that the end result is war
and aggression which consequently attracts the attention of political
administrations, this aggressions is not in real sense political in nature. The underlying causes are purely cultural.
[8]In conclusion
therefore, the nature of war is not always political as has been argued by
some thinkers such as Gray. On the contrary, the character of war in the
contemporary society has greatly transformed with the wars being witnessed in
the contemporary day indicating a great propensity towards being cultural,
social and economic. It is not absolutely factual to claim that wars
are inherently political in nature. On the contrary, as illustrated in this
essay, many of the wars in which a majority of human civilizations have found
themselves entangled have been caused by either social or cultural dynamics;
such dynamics include social injustice and inequalities, feelings of cultural
inferiority or superiority as well as lack of democracy and cultural
imperialism by powerful nations.
Work
Cited
Collins
Gray: ‘Irregular Warfare: One Nature, Many Characters’ Strategic Studies Quarterly
(2007) Pp. 35-40
Kolawole a. Owolabi: ‘Globalization, Americanization and
Western imperialism’ VOL 16 NO 2
July Journal Of Social Development In Africa
(2001) Pp. 71-80
Stephen Van Evera: ‘Causes and Prevention of
War’ (2009) pp. 1-5
Wendy Doniger:
‘Splitting the Difference’ (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, (1999), Pp. 65
(2007) Pp. 35-40
[2]
Wendy Doniger: ‘Splitting the Difference’ (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, (1999), Pp. 65
[3]
Stephen Van Evera: ‘Causes and Prevention of
War’ (2009) pp. 1-5
[4]
Kolawole A. Owolabi: ‘Globalization, Americanization and
Western imperialism’ VOL 16 NO 2 July Journal
Of Social Development In Africa (2001) Pp. 71-80
[5]
Stephen Van Evera: ‘Causes and Prevention of War’ (2009)
pp. 1-5
[6]
Kolawole a. Owolabi: ‘Globalization, Americanization and
Western imperialism’ Vol 16 No 2 July Journal
Of Social Development In Africa (2001) Pp. 71-80
(2007) Pp. 35-40
[8]
Stephen Van Evera: ‘Causes and Prevention of War’ (2009)
pp. 1-5
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