Session 22: War in a nutshell

 Realists, Liberalists, Constructivists, all have studied war in detail and give respective explanations to why they think War take place.  Jack Levy’s article “War and Peace” summarizes these different perspectives on War. One has to appreciate Jack Levy’s efforts to incorporate Liberalism and Realism in order to explain the concept of War. However, not being a fan of any such “multi-method” approaches which are always just an easy way out for any researcher. Liberalism and Realists have such opposite beliefs on the concept of war that it really surprises me at the idea of incorporating the two to explain the existence of War

However that is not the major concern. I am afraid that important things are being ignored by such researchers. When it comes to suggesting definite ways to act to prevent wars, most of the researchers don’t provide with any. As mentioned by one of our class mates, it is about the Future. Definitely it is about the future. The past is history. One should learn from history and implement it for the future rather than staying in the past. The world has not seen a major war since the end of the Second World War Why is that? Some claim it is due to the Bi-polar system which existed at that moment. Not to forget that the major focus is mainly Inter-state War. What about War taking place with in states? Isn’t that war? Then how would one define War?

There are a million questions one could ask which have not been answered. Or explanations have been reductionist. The point is that some claim that there is a possibility of WAR still taking place in this dangerous era of nuclear weapons. That is a sight no one wants to see. Therefore, these IR scholars need to put their differences aside and need to seriously come up with practical solutions rather than just theories.