On War
The history of the formation of nation states is intertwined with armed
conflicts and bloodshed. War in its protieform manifestation is central to the
understanding of International Relations and several other cognate disciplines.
When India for example was partitioned in 1947 there were riots, refugee
crisis. Similar examples can be seen in the case of Israel, Palestine and all
other nations grappling with ethno national violence and bellicose tactics used
by the governments to suppress such violence.
According to Clausewitz war is an extension of politics by other means .Headly
Bull’s defined war as organized violence carried on by political units against
each other
Nations today are accelerating their
defence modernisation process and conducting nuclear explosions to test their
capabilities and war preparedness. The psychological pressures by the
international community such as the United Nations have fairly managed to
control nuclear proliferation across the globe. Both India and Pakistan are
traditional adversaries and nuclear states. Hence in all probability its best
to avoid any full blown war in spite of India following a “No First Use”
nuclear policy.
What is war? E H Carr, Hans Morgenthau had already opined that nation
states will go to any length to gain
power. Geopolitical wars have changed the history and geography of the world
map. Conflicts or wars have existed since time immemorial. Gray, Kaldor, Thornton
, Hoffman and Bousquet, Creveld have explored the many dimensions of war,
hybrid, postmodern asymmetric etc. War is essentially rooted in socio political
and psychological inequalities. The internal conflicts such as the Naxalite
movement in India are quintessential cases of resource inequality. War or
conflict is more than just an act of violence. It is an action reaction
mechanism based on historical transformations of human societies.
Institutionalization of war is yet another dimension that has been a
central theme of political studies and International Relations. In common
parlance, Institutionalization refers to the process of embedding some
conception (for example a belief, norm, social role, particular value or mode
of behaviour) within an organization, social system, or society as a whole. (Source
Wikipedia). The defence forces in India follow a structural pattern of hierarchy
and the institution of the defence mechanism is guided by policy makers from
the Ministry of Defence, India. The discipline of International relations was moulded
to suit the objectives of the United Nations created in 1945 to save the
succeeding generations from the scourge of war. But some wars are never ending.
They may not be a full fledged armed violence; proxy wars can disrupt the
social fabric of political societies as well.
There are several dynamics of war that need to be understood to tackle
internal and external disturbances. The first is to deal with economic
inequality. Redistribution of wealth or dictatorship of the proletariat as
crafted by Karl Marx is an important study in itself. Other factors include
religious differences, territorial disputes, violence against women, gender
inequality, political non representation etc. The mechanism of war is like a
manipulative tool in the hands of the political establishments to suit specific
interests. Analogy can be drawn in the case of the fourth estate which focuses on
dramatic stories, sensationalism to increase their TRP’s. This is also a war, a
war to win the first slot during primetime telecast of debates.
It is very difficult to understand the logic behind conflicts and wars as
Clausewitz opined there is a marked difference between absolute and real wars. Wars
are politically motivated. Unless a just social order is put in place inter and
intra state conflict will continue to plague human societies. With the
disintegration of the Soviet Block in 1991, the world witnessed the rise of
United States of America as the new hegemon controlling international politics.
In recent years economic development and globalisation has led to many nations competing
with the hegemon for their space in the international arena. India is seen as a
dominant state in South Asia and the rise of the Dragon is a direct attack on America’s
hegemonic superpower status.
The realignment of nation states and changing dynamics of war has
transformed the academic discipline of international Politics. In the years to
come, there will be more bloodshed if a just uniform political order is not put
in place. In my opinion anarchy also leads to war. Some form of control is
must. This control can only come through a strong judicial system and civil
codes across the globe and doing away with discriminatory policies.
