Session 22: War and Peace

No matter what the topic of discussion under the umbrella of international relations is, it will ultimately seep into the discussion of peace and war which lie on opposite ends of the spectrum. Peace is universally favoured and so scholars have discussed it to further allow it to prevail in the international. However, it should be borne in mind that due to the catastrophic repercussions of war, it also demands the attention of the learned.

War has been a recurring pattern since the beginning of history but over time and space, its frequency has diminished while its seriousness has increased. The changing nature of war has changed the way the discipline of international relations is studied. For example, it would have been less of a concern if there had been a few causalities. However, the two great wars that claimed millions of lives urged the scholars to devise a way to put an end to these unfortunate events by studying their causes.

“…the key actors in world politics are sovereign states who act rationally to advance their security, power and wealth in an anarchic international system, defined as the absence of a legitimate governmental authority to regulate disputes and enforce agreements between states or other actors.” These behaviors are the root causes of war through realists’ perspectives. Any actions taken to counterbalance the negative impact of these concepts would work towards mitigating the consequences of war.

Liberals on the other end believe that through appropriate state strategies the violent-prone character of the international politics can be ameliorated and peace can be established. This is because the states are economically interdependent and democratic institutions advocate for peace. This can be seen using the example of European Union which has successfully evaded war in the region through the mere act of cooperate and has been very productive in achieving its goals.

In a nutshell, by deviating from the traditional approaches to the study of IR one can hope to get answers to complex world issues such as the causes of war and ways to avoid it.