War
Why War? (Koh Yong Kha Ashley)
We are all aware of the negative consequences of wars: People get killed, environments get damaged and countries incur huge losses. Why then, do countries choose to go to war?
Some countries might have chosen to go to war for the sake of resources or territories. This is especially in current times when natural resources are depleting. One example will be the Gulf War, where Iraq invaded Kuwait for oil resources. Other reasons for war include ideological clashes. The most famous example will be the Cold War.
Despite the fact that different reasons have been used to explain the start of wars, I would feel that the root cause will be the breakdown of social relations. Social relation between two parties is build on the basis of interaction, a lack of interaction will mean a lack of understanding and hence the breakdown of social relation which can result in undesirable consequences.
I would like to use the Cold War as an example.
There are three schools of thought for the causes of the Cold War. Out of which, the third school of thought states that neither America nor USSR was to be blame for the start of the war. It was not deliberately caused by either party, but instead a result of an action-reaction process. The two countries perceive each other as a serious threat who seeks to spread their ideology. America perceived that the USSR was pursuing ideological expansion and hence came up with the Iron Curtain Speech and Marshall Plan to contain communism which of course resulted in unhappiness within the USSR government. When Western Germany merged as one, USSR came up with the Berlin Blockade in an attempt to guard its territory. This resulted in the Berlin airlift by America which further worsens the relations between the two countries.
We can see from the above example that the Cold War was a war of misunderstanding, caused by the breakdown of social relations between America and the USSR. If there have been better communications and interactions, the war might not have lasted for so long.
This is further proven by the fact that when Gorbachev took over USSR, he willingly negotiated with USA. Both countries reduced their military resources and tensions gradually died down. With understanding of Capitalism, he even came up with two new policies: Glasnost and perestroika which eventually resulted in the end of the Cold War.
This is also illustrated in the Gulf War. Although the pursue of oil is an important reason for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, there was the involvement of historical animosities. Kuwait had obstructed Iraq’s attempt to bring the oil prices up so as to pay their debts. Iraq was unhappy with this and it is obvious this was one of the other reasons which led to the war. We can see that the social relations between the two countries were strained even before the war.
Will two people who have always got along well fight with each other all of a sudden? There odd to be problems and misunderstandings between the countries that led to the choice of violence.
We cannot say that social relations is the only reason that results in wars; there are of course other reasons that contribute to it. However, as what we learnt, a society is built on the basis of interactions and social relations, without them, the society will end. Due to globalization, all parts of the world are linked together; hence we can say that the world operates just like one big society, each country as the people. It is important for each and every to build good social relations so as to maintain peace in the world.
