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Wednesday January 12 2011
Lecture 2.5: Reasons for War I
PS 2BB3: Introduction to the Study of War
Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University
Reasons for War IWhy War?
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Outline
Recap
Basis for war
Identity
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Recap
What is war?
Remembering War
Basis for war
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Gallipoli
Peter Weir (1981)
Perceptions of war
Some of the reasons why
young men joined
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The United States, I think, still sees war as a necessarypart of its existence. Its impossible to maintain the
military on that scale, a Pentagon on that scale, withoutturning it over. Youve got to have officers who areexperienced in command and control. Youve got to havetroops who have been bloodied.
David Cornwell (aka John Le Carr)
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War (1983)
Gwynne Dyer
Barbara Sears
National Film Board of
Canada
http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=14327
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Tomorrow, when the war began
Stewart Beattie (2010)
John Marsden (1993)
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The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its
destruction and carnage it can give us what we long forin life.
Chris Hedges (2002)
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Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the
shallowness and vapidness of much of our lives becomeapparent.
Chris Hedges (2002)
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Summary
Personal reasons why
people go to war Perceptions
Roots
Identity
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Citations & further reading
David Cornwell, aka John l)e Carr (2010), interviewed by Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan onDemocracy Now, October 11.http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/11/exclusive_british_novelist_john_le_carr
Chris Hedges (2002) War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, New York: Public Affairs.
Neil Postman (1985)Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Penguin.
Peter Weir (1981), Gallipoli, Australian Film Commission.
Howard Zinn (2002) Failure to Quit: Reflections on an Optimistic Historian, Cambridge: South End Press.pp. 99-115 ( Just and Unjust Wars).
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Image sources
Theatrical Poster, Tomorrow, when the war beganhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tomorrow,_When_the_War_Began_theatrical_poster.jpg
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