Section 4: Cause of War

The question about the cause of war discussed in the reading that whether war can be explained best in light of role of states or the norms and situations in international arena where states interact is  pretty controversial. If one is to explain majority of the historical warfare, then one must analyze war in a number of perspectives.

States, unlike men, are not single entities. A singular state is a product of minds of many people or representatives of the state. Therefore, to forecast the behavior of any state, one has to view what is the present situation in the society of the state and what are the norms and behavior of their representatives. The claim by Woodrow Wilson about the distinction between peaceful and aggressive states is right up to certain extent but he failed to explain the impact of norms and situation of international society that is the partly responsible for the state to react in a particular situation. For example, USA attacked Iraq even when three members of Security Council did not support its claim. USA was so much concerned about its own security and about the protection of international community from anarchy (the development of weapon of mass destruction), it started a war which created an anarchic situation which was proved meaningless afterwards as no Weapons of Mass Destruction were found in Iraq.

This aggressive move from a very democratic country explains that being democratic or authoritarian is not the only arbitrary rule to explain war. However, it might help to understand and predict the reaction of a particular state on a particular issue.