War and Peace
A state of armed conflict between societies is what is known as war. Wars are fought especially if there are disagreements between sovereigns of states on various issues like land, water and so on. Besides, wars may also be the outcome of greed to grab the land, and resources of other states or it may due to the overwhelming desire to exercise more power over a wider population. The absence war is what can be called as peace.
Wars may be fought due to various reasons and some of those reasons would be just while most others may be unjust. Warfare is justified especially when there is a just reason for the war to be fought. In this paper, a discussion on the reasons for warfare and why warfare is justified when there exists specific reasons for the same is provided in the following sections.
There are various reasons for wars to occur especially since wars are waged on the basis of careful and rational decision-making. There would be many answers to the reasons for war, and therefore, it is necessary to have a proper understanding of the various causes of wars. There are two prerequisites for any war to take place, and the first prerequisite is that the costs should not be way too much and above the benefits of waging the war. For any rational war to happen, two prerequisites are necessary (Jackson and Morelli 2). The first prerequisite is that, the expected benefits should exceed the cost of the war, that is, the benefits such as “resources, power, glory, territory” (Jackson and Morelli 2) and so on should far exceed the costs of waging the war with the costs being like loss of property and people. Therefore, in any war, there would be one side that would be expecting its gains from the war to outweigh the costs.
The second prerequisite is that, there needs to be a failure in bargaining, when bargaining fails wherein an advantageous and enforceable agreement that benefits both parties is not reached, then wars may take place (Jackson and Morelli 2). Therefore, to understand why war happens, one has to understand why bargaining fails, and why certain circumstances and incentives may lead to countries arming themselves in such a way that the expected benefits from the war outweigh the costs at least for one of the sides that is waging the war.
There are various reasons as to why bargains fails like information being available on the costs and benefits of war, the inability to enforce the bargain or the lack of credibility to follow the terms of the bargain, difficulties in dividing resources that will change hands once a war is waged to the extent that it is difficult to arrive at a bargain that would benefit all parties to a conflict, when motivations of leaders are different from the populations that they represent, or when agreements are blocked by one state or multiple states that results in the failure of the bargain (Jackson and Morelli 3).
When there is difficulty in enforcing or committing to an agreement, wars are likely to last for a long time, and the war would end at the point either one side wins the war, or the cost of the war becomes too high for both sides to continue the war (Jackson and Morelli 3). One of the principle reasons for war is the inability to enforce agreements, but bargaining failure can even happen where agreements can be enforced in a credible way. For example, country X gathers as much asymmetric information about country Y especially with respect to country Y’s strengths and weaknesses. If country X finds that country Y is weak relative to country X’s strength, then country X does not see any reason as to why it should bargain with country Y, and the resulting consequence is war between these two countries (Jackson and Morelli 3). War would make the relative strengths of both countries clear, and when a situation arises wherein bargaining is the only solution to avoid escalation of costs for both countries, then both countries come to an agreement to end the war. Therefore, the duration of war is corresponds to “different sources of bargaining failure” (Jackson and Morelli 3).
Wars can be either rational or irrational. Bargaining failures and steps to overcome such failures to end a war are all part of rational wars, but sometimes, wars can be fought due to reasons that are irrational in nature. Bargaining failure categories can also be applied to irrational wars because what may seem irrational can also appear to be rational, and one of the irrational reasons for war is war on the basis of religion (Jackson and Morelli 5).
When two theocracies go to war, the goal of both the states will not be material like resources, land and so on of the other state, instead, the goal would be to increase the population size of one religion while eradicating the other. In these kinds of situations, even if conditions for bargaining exist, there will not be any bargains because it would be impossible to reach bargains that would please the aggressor. Wars on the basis of religion is stated to be irrational because, leaders of warring theocratic states would say that they are waging the war not of their own choice, but due to a direction from a higher being or may be that his religious code mandates such an action (Jackson and Morelli 5). These wars are not fought keeping in the mind the well-being and autonomy of populations, but due to the directions of a higher being or religious code. Therefore, these religious wars may be irrational but it is something that can be understood from a rational perspective because, like rational wars, irrational wars too have a goal and purpose even though those goals and purposes may sound irrational (Jackson and Morelli 5).
There are other reasons why wars are waged such as that war is necessary for human beings to reach their full stature. An example of this was the Soviets bringing about competition between groups wherein “basic, competitive, aggressive, warring human nature is assumed” (Mead 1). One another valid reason given is that “warfare is the inevitable concomitant of the development of the state, the struggle for land and natural resources of class societies springing, not from the nature of man, but from the nature of history” (Mead 1). Therefore, to avoid wars, our social systems should be changed and classification of people should be banned.
Wars may be rational or irrational, but these wars definitely have reasons and these reasons should be just in order to justify a war. There are three things necessary to justify a war, and those three things are discussed in the next section.
According to Thomas Aquinas, for a just war, there should exist three conditions, first, there should be a sovereign authority on whose orders the war is launched, second, there should exist a just cause, and third, intentions of the combatants should be to advance good and to avoid evil (Aquinas 1814). A war that meets these three conditions can be treated as a just war.
A Sovereign should exist and the war should be waged on the basis of the orders of the Sovereign. A private individual should not wage war because he or she has can always approach the tribunal of his superiors to have his or her grievance redressed. A private individual should not mobilize people to as if to go for a war because it is the duty of those in authority to ensure law and order in the kingdom that is under their control. It is lawful for those in authority to use the sword “in defending the common weal against internal disturbances, when they punish evil-doers” (Aquinas 1814). As much as they wield the sword to punish internal disturbances, it is the duty of the authorities to wield the sword “in defending the common weal against external enemies” (Aquinas 1814). Those in authority are responsible for saving the poor and needy from the wrongful acts of sinners like when “the World Trade Center was assaulted in New York by Islamist radicals inked to Osama bin Laden” (Kellner 2). Terrorism is an act of war and the “spectacle of terror thus use dramatic images and montage to catch attention” (Kellner 2). Augustine says that for peace to prevail among humans, those with supreme authority should hold ”the power to declare and counsel war” (Aquinas 1814).
The second important aspect for a war to be just is to have just cause. This means that there should be just reason to attack those who are attacked, and that reason should be that they deserve to be attacked for some fault of theirs. According to Augustine, a just war should be waged to right the wrongs committed by those who are attacked. For example, any nation should be punished for the wrong acts of its subjects to avenge those wrongs, and to restore what has been unjustly seized (Aquinas 1814).
The third aspect of a just war is the right intention of the combatants. The intention of the combatants should be to advance good and avoid evil, Augustine says true religion views wars as peaceful if those wars are for “securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good” (Aquinas 1814). That is, the war should be fought to enforce peace, and justice in society.
There should be no room for pacifism especially in a just war because as George Orwell stated “if you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other” (Orwell 1) and pacifism does exactly this by opposing war, militarism or violence. According to George Orwell “pacifism is objectively pro-fascist” (Orwell 1) because by not participating in the war and opposing it, an individual actually helps the opposite side. In a just war there should be no scope for pacifism because as Augustine rightly said, all evil-doers should be punished and there should be advancement of the good. If all of the three aspects described above are there, then warfare is justified.
I would therefore call upon all right thinking individuals to not be pacifist in their nature especially when they are fighting a just war because, when you fight for something that is just, you advance the cause of good in society and would help society avoid evil. Therefore, do not be a pacifist, and always understand that warfare is justified especially if it is fought for a just cause.
Warfare is justified especially if wars are fought for a just cause. There are various reasons for war with one of the main reasons being the failure of bargaining to bring about a just settlement between affected states to a particular dispute. Wars may be fought especially if the benefits of a war outweigh the costs and if one nation is well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the other and has the means to exploit the weaknesses. Wars can be rational or irrational, but whatever the reason for a war, a war is justified if it adheres to the three things, first, if the war is by the order of the Sovereign, second, it is for a just cause, and third, if it is fought with the right intentions of advancing good and avoiding evil.
Works Cited
Aquinas, Saint Thomas. Summa Theologica. Benziger Bros eds. 1947.
Jackson M.O and M. Morelli. The Reasons for Wars – an Updated Survey. The Handbook on the Political Economy of War. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kellner, D. 9/11, Spectacles of Terror, and Media Manipulation: A Critique of Jihadist and Bush Media Politics. http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/.
Mead, M. Warfare is Only an Invention -- Not a Biological Necessity in the Dolphin Reader 2 Eds. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston.
Orwell, G. Pacifism and the War. Partisan Review, September, 2012.
