Session 13- First strike?

Stephan Van Evern in this week’s article talks about the offensive strategies in the world system that leads to war and chaos. He specifically focuses on the World War 1 and like many theorists of the discipline of International Relations, he gives a very diverse set of opinions as to why the World War 1 occurred, his main focus being on the offensive front. One of the factors that sparked an interest in me and what I feel can be synonymous to the defining cause of the World War can be the advantage of the state that strikes first.

Evern has predicted that the state which carries the first strike will be better off than the other state and because of this, the entire system focuses on strengthen their military capabilities. There can be the aspect of psychological advantage which states might achieve if they carry out the first strike, as the country being attacked will have this thought in mind that the country that is attacking them, surely is powerful and confident enough to survive any retaliations. The international system is generally anarchic as we have been taught throughout this course through the lens of Realism mostly, and in the system the concept of self-help really stands out. The ability to defend yourself ensures your chances of surviving in the system.

Evern delves into the causes of the World War 1 and tries his best to explain why this war could have had been carried out. For us readers, the question he leaves us with is whether the wars that have been fought since the time of the first Great War have all of them been due to these reasons? Is the basics of these reasons a build up to all the wars that have followed this war or since time has passed, other intricate reasons have joined these factors stated by Evern.