WAR

Research on War

What is it?

It is characterized by intentional violence on the part of large bodies of individuals organized and trained for that purpose. On the national level, some wars are fought internally between rival political factions (civil war); others are fought against an external enemy. Wars have been fought in the name of religion, in self-defense, to acquire territory or resources, and to further the political aims of the aggressor state's leadership.

War, in the popular sense, a conflict among political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude, in the usage of social science, certain qualifications are added. Sociologists generally apply the period to such confrontations only if they are started and conducted in agreement with communally recognized patterns. They heal conflict as an institution identified in made-to-order or in law. Military writers generally restrict the term to hostilities in which the arguing assemblies are adequately identical in power to render the outcome unsure for a time. Armed conflicts of powerful states with isolated and powerless peoples are usually called pacifications, military expeditions, or explorations; with small states, they are called interventions or reprisals; and with internal groups, rebellions or insurrections. Such occurrences, if the opposition is sufficiently strong or protracted, may accomplish a magnitude that authorizes them to the name “war.”

Why is it Important?

In all ages conflict has been a significant topic of analysis. In the latter part of the 20th century, in the aftermath of two world wars and in the shadow of nuclear, biological, and chemical holocaust, more was written on the subject than ever before. Endeavors to understand the nature of war, to formulate some theory of its causes, conduct, and prevention, are of great importance, for theory shapes human expectations and determine human behavior. The diverse schools of theorists are usually aware of the deep leverage they can workout upon life, and their writings generally encompass a strong normative component, for, when acknowledged by politicians, their concepts can suppose the characteristics of self-fulfilling prophecies. (Stokesbury, 54)

The investigation of conflict may be divided into some categories. Philosophical, political, financial, technological, lawful, sociological, and psychological advances are often distinguished. These distinctions show the varying focuses of interest and the distinct analytical categories employed by the theoretician, but most of the genuine theories are blended because conflict is an extremely complex social occurrence that will not be clarified by any single component or through any lone approach. (Perkins, 24)

How long it's been a Major Issue

Reflecting alterations in the worldwide system, ideas of conflict have passed through some phases in the course of the past three centuries. After the finish of the conflicts of belief, about the middle of the 17th years, conflicts were battled for the interests of individual sovereigns and were restricted both in their objectives and in their scope. The art of maneuver became resolute, and analysis of war was couched accordingly in periods of strategies. The situation changed fundamentally with the outbreak of the French Revolution, which increased the size of forces from small professional to ...