War in World Politics

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WAR IN WORLD POLITICSFor many lay observers of world politics, war is an unfortunate interruption of

the normal state of peace among countries. When wars do occur, they are oftenblamed on individual leaders with militaristic ambitions and inclinations. Goonto the street and ask passersby about the primary cause of World War II,and their answers will likely begin with the name Adolf Hitler. ikewise, dependingon whom you ask or where you are doing the asking, the !""# invasion ofIra$ by the %nited &tates is likely to be blamed on either &addam Hussein orGeorge W. 'ush.When it comes to thinking about war, scholars suggest that Americans inparticular tend not to be natural(born realists. )he American view of war as ane*ceptional state of a+airs is not hard to understand given %.&. history and geography.ue to the lu*ury of its location in the Western Hemisphere, no war hasbeen fought on American soil since the -ivil War, and the last time foreign troopsfought on American territory was the War of /!. Americans have e*perienced

terrorist attacks on the homeland, such as the &eptember , !"" attacks on theWorld )rade -enter and the 0entagon, but no American alive today has ever hadforeign soldiers march across his or her property, has ever had to hide in a shelterwhile bombs rained from above, or has ever e*perienced the death of a childon %.&. soil at the hands of an enemy army. 1evertheless, the record of humanhistory stands in sharp contrast to the view of peace as the norm.

The Prevalence of War and Violence)he %nited &tates, in its relatively brief history as a nation, has fought in a do2enma3or interstate wars and has been involved in countless smaller(scale militarycon4icts. )he average number of years between American involvements in ma3orwars has been less than two decades, and the result is that every American generationsince the American 5evolution has lived through years of America at war.Well over million American soldiers have died in battle, and the number of


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wounded is many times that number 6see )able 7.8.)he global record is even worse. 0olitical scientist 9. avid &inger and hisassociates in the -orrelates of War 0ro3ect have been collecting and analy2ingdata on modern 6nineteenth( and twentieth(century8 war for more than fourdecades.#espite de:ning war very conservatively as sustained military combatwith a minimum of ,""" battle deaths;a de:nition common among politicalscientists;the record of the past two centuries is sobering. Accordingtothe

-orrelates of War data, 7" wars occurred during the period /< to ==>. )hosewars were of three types?7

@Interstate wars:

those pitting two or more legally recogni2ed sovereign statesagainst one another. World Wars I and II and the == 0ersian Gulf War areobvious e*amples. )here were >= of these wars from /< to ==>.

@ Extra-state wars: those in which at least one participant is a nonstate actor.In many cases, these have been wars of independence waged by coloniesagainst imperial powers. *amples include the Franco(Algerian War of =B7and the 0ortuguese(Angolan War of =>B. )here were "/ of these warsfrom /< to ==>.

@ Intrastate wars, or civil wars: those fought among groups within the bordersof a sovereign state. *amples include the ==! :ghting among &erbs,-roats, and Cuslims in 'osnia as well as the con4ict in -hechnya. )his isthe largest group, with !7 wars from /< to ==>.-ollectively, there is an average of !.!! new wars per year.B When one considersthat most wars last more than one year, the average number of wars in progressaround the world at any time is even higher. Indeed, it would be hard to :nd a dayin the past two centuries when at least one war was not taking place somewhere.Cilitary power and violence come in forms other than war.Coercivediplomacy;threats and small(scale demonstrations of military power short ofwar;remains a fre$uent backdrop to international politics.

)he -orrelates ofWar 0ro3ect captures this lower(intensity use of military power in its data onmilitari2ed interstate disputes 6CIs8. CIs are de:ned as Dcon4icts in whichone or more states threaten, display, or use force against one or more otherstatesE and thus include wars plus a much larger number of cases of coercivediplomacy.


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power, there is no law where no law, no in3ustice. Force and fraud are in war thetwo cardinal virtues.E )hus, in the realist view, the fre$uency to which statesresort to war to settle disputes is predictable, if not always desirable. Itis, as-lausewit2 suggested, the Dcontinuation of policy.E

)his view does not, however, imply that war for states is always the preferredoption for protecting national interests. War, for realists, is a matter of the rationalcalculation of costs and bene:ts. )he implicit $uestion that any realist would askbefore going to war is, DAre the interests that can be successfully protected orpromoted worth it in comparison to the potential costsE )hose costs mightinclude money e*pended, economic assets destroyed, political goodwill lost, and

the number of oneJs soldiers likely to be killed. In some cases, the calculationmight lead one to choose war as a necessary and prudent act. In other cases, thecosts might be seen as too high.For e*ample, 9ohn Cearsheimer, one of the most outspoken contemporaryrealists, and one of the theorists $uoted at the beginning of this chapter, opposedthe %.&. decision to go to war in Ira$ precisely because he did not believe thecostKbene:t calculation added up in favor of war. In his view, continued %1sanctions, coupled with the threat of massive American military retaliation inthe event that Ira$ ac$uired and used weapons of mass destruction against the%nited &tates or its allies, were sucient to contain Ira$ at a much lower costthan going to war." His opposition to the war was not simply that people wouldbe killed but, rather, that American interests would not be served. Lthers, includingother realists, disagreed with CearsheimerJs analysis of the Ira$ case. )he

point, however, is that the realist view of war as inevitable and useful does notapply to every particular war.For many, this cold, calculating costKbene:t approach to war can be morallytroubling, especially when discussing an activity in which millions of lives areat stake. 'ut one might counter that this approach to warfare is really not soe*ceptional. -onsider, for e*ample, the case of the automobile. In !""# therewere 7!,


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War in World Politics

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