ON WAR

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.