Waltz in this piece of writing delves into two very
important concepts in International Relations, war and peace. War and peace are
an epitome of what International Relations revolves around as at the end of the
day, relations in the international system comes down to being in a state of
war or just maintaining peace. What remains unanswered till this day however is
whether war and peace is manmade or does the state or the international system
have a role to play in these two concepts.
Since International Relations is a discipline with several
approaches, it is safe to assume that these two prospects are defined and
confined to the several views. While some blame war to be a cause of the “evil
tendencies” within a man, others blame the state while others bring in the survival
in the international system card to play the game. Waltz in this chapter, has
categorized the causes of war under three headings. These headings are within
man, within the structure of the separate states, within the state system.
These sub divisions of the causes of war I feel are very well structured, and
within them they cover up all the major and minor causes of war, whether it’s
carried out for survival, economic, cultural, socio political or religious
reasons. These divisions might help answer the views on war held by the leading
approaches of International Relations such as Realism, Liberalism, Marxism or
even Social Constructivism.
If I give my own personal opinion, others might disagree,
but I feel wars occurs due to the state system. If we take into consideration
Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory, about how the world is divided into the
core, periphery and semi periphery, I feel that the impending pressure to
develop and to run forward in the race of globalization, the state system
suffocates the states to an extent that it results in war. I agree Balance of
power exists, but if two of the super powers of the world do not budge and
there is a change in the balance of power, for e.g. let’s say power shifts from
USA to China, there will be a great deal of uncertainty within the
international state system and that might lead to war.
I agree that the need to consolidate power encourages states to go to war, as the already powerful states have a vested interest in strengthening their hegemonic control. However, a state will not go to war every time it sees a greater super power emerging because they will still take into account the consequences of warfare.
ReplyDeleteI never said a state would go to war everytime it sees a super power emerge. I spoke about uncertainty and said that it might go to war. But I agree that consequences will hold states back from wars.
ReplyDeleteArguing that structural reasons cause war puts you in line with the structural realist (i.e. Waltz) school of thought.
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