Posting by Boeun Kim (김보은) _ W 11

The Causes of War

 

Summary :

 

  There are debates about why wars occur. This reading material explains about it through various academic fields.

 

picture 1 / by wikimedia commons

# Historians

  Historians study on conditions and situations of wars.

 

# Psychological theories

1) There are some pshychologists who argue that men are fundamentally violent and this temperament emits into wars. But this theory can’t explain when and where the wars occur.

2) There are some insists that If people elect unviolent leaders by election, the wars will not occur.

3) In evolution theory, people have desire to have more territories like other animals and people have more destructive power by technology.

 

# Anthropological theories

  Anthropologists insist that the reason of wars is not nature, but nurture. various violent accidents are independent accidents which have each reasons.

 

# Sociological theories

  Some sociologists have been tried to make formulas predicting that when and where the wars occur. On the other hand, other sociologists insist that there are no only one reasons which make the wars occur but various factors make the wars occur. And they try to devide the war into two types as civil wars and foreign wars, but that is not such a success. Or, there are insists that domestic conditions and international interests make the wars like world war 1.

 

# Information theories

  Geoffrey Blainey insists that all wars are based on a lack of information which means that if people think about the possibility of win of the war, they do not war and do not pay sacrifices. And some examples such as world wars follow. This theory is based on the facts that some factors such as doctrine, economies, and power make a change of outgrowth of war.

  To gather informations, there are two main objects. One is knowing enemy’s competence, the other is knowing enemy’s intention. So if two group’s interest match with each other, they can avoid war.

 

# Economic theories

  The reason of wars is economic competition in international system.

# Marxist theories

  All war grows out of the class war, which means that the bourgeoisie tyrannize to get more powers and markets. So wars will not disappear unless world revolution.

 

Interesting points & Discussions :

 

  I agree with the fact that technology have destructive power to wars and it threat human species. For example, the world wars take a lot of people’s life and hurts. Especially, I think the development of weapons of mass destruction make these phenomena. Under the weapons of mass destruction, the individual’s life will be tiny thing. So many countries make agreements of defecting weapons. But, the North Korea doesn’t keep international agreements and acts arbitrary. The head of North Korea uses nuclear weapon as a one way to threat other countries and I think this makes a tension around countries.

  

picture 2 / by wikimedia commons

  I thought about the Korean War. There are many reasons of the Korean War such as conflict of ideology, leader’s greed, international interest relationship, and so on. But, anyway, the results of the wars are horrible. Today we see a lot of media such as movie, drama about wars. We know that wars are bad and it must not be supposed to do. But I worried about maybe some media made us think that the wars are light.

 

references (Attribution) :

 

- picture 1 : By Veteran Affairs Canada [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

- picture 2: By U.S. Army Korea - Installation Management Command (http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil ID: HDSN9903046) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Conflict Theory

 

summary :

picture 3 / by wikimedia commons

# Detailed Description

  There are explanations and definitions about Theoretical Assumptions, Key terms, and Propositions.

 

# History of Conflict Theory

  The ancient philosophers of China, especially Han Fei Tzu, insist that only ‘punishment’ can control people because people are innately weak and lazy. Meanwhile, the Greek philosopherㅡPolybius insist that leaders lead group because human is similar to animal and this became a form of Monarchy. He insist that the cycle of [monarchy -> corruption & tyranny -> new leader & getting liberty -> monarchy again] repeats, so the only way to stop this cycle is to form a government that combines the best elements from each form.

 

  In 19-20th century, many sociologists found conflict theory as sociological theory because the conflict is necessary to society. Karl Marx, especially, is called the father of conflict theory. He contributes to the development of social science and in the socialist political movement. He insists revolution of class with Friedrich Engels and this accident influences today.

 

 Marx thinks that the conflicts happen at industrial class sociology. In addition, Webber thinks that power, prestige and property are one of the reason of social conflicts. And Mills thinks that social structure shows us the conflicts.

 

# Modern Examples

 

- Social stratification

  People who have power exploit and oppress poor class people to remain their privileges. These social stratification are observed in various form of government.

 

- Wealth and Power Inequality

  A survey which is executed in US, shows us that 20% upper class people occupy wealth of 80%. And this means the inequality of social wealth and power and poor class people have no accessibility to social resources and opportunity.

 

- Drug Abuse and Crime

  The punishment on crimes acts differently. The examples of Greek’s punishments on crime or US’s punishments on drug abuse show us that the upper class people are given preferential treatments resultingly.

Interesting points & Discussions :

 

  I think this subject is similar to stratification which we learned at week 9. But, at the history of conflict theory part, Han Fei Tzu’s insistence is interesting to me. I think it is really perspective of upper class. I wonder weather Han Fei Tzu’s environment. I think he must have reach family.

picture 4 / by wikimedia commons

  Lately, we had a shock accidentsㅡpresident election of Donald Trump. I think this accident show us aggravation of conflicts. People who support Trump are almost whites (meaning race conflict), and they insist that don’t accept the immigrants (meaning labor/ job conflict). In addition, Trump look down on women! He bombard rough words about women and other immigrants. According to this election, I think US people have been filled conflicts in various parts and this emits as a result of this election. I wonder if US will solve these problems in future.

reference (Attribution) :

picture3 : By Aaron from Seattle, WA, USA (Face Off) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

picture 4 : By Michael Vadon [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons