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in the 21st Century

Global Politics

Consider the world news in today’s TheNew York Times

• Mideast Talks Teeter as the Settlement Freeze Expires

• Japan Asks China to Pay for Damages• NATO Carries Out Airstrikes Inside

Pakistan• Helicopter Attacks Militant Meeting in

Somalia• Chávez Allies Win Majority, but Foes

Make Gains• Delegates Arrive for N. Korea Meeting• China Imposes a Steep Tariff on U.S.

Poultry• Jewish Activists Set Sail From Cyprus

for Gaza, Aiming to Defy Israeli Blockade

• A Silent Attack, but Not a Subtle One• Asia-Pacific Universities Adding Islamic

Finance Courses

Global politics is people.

People evaluate, decide and act

Leon Trotsky said, “You might not be interested in war,

but war is interested in you.”

Wars have been continuous over time

Wars have become more deadly,

especially with the growing

availability of technological

means of destruction

War is also about politics(http://mapsofwar.com/ind/american-wars.html)

People generally have two objectives in life

Livelihood Meaning

Livelihood is based on economy, the making of things needed to sustain life, and the arrangements for making things

People extract & transform stuff, make things, acquire knowledge and skills, organize, work, buy and sell, trade, etc. as part of the economy.

This involves making political decisions.

But people also seek purpose and meaningin their lives, through faith, ideology, self-actualization, wealth, family, community—

and these also involve politics

The ways in which societies organize to achieve these two goals can be called political economy: institutional arrangements, rules & practices

Humans transform the material environment,

through technologies, ideas, practices

Sheer numbers of people, and high

levels of consumption in the North are stressing those environments

Internal combustion may be one of the most significant features of both politics and

environment over the past 100 years

Vehicles consume vast quantities of oil in moving people and stuff around, and the emit vast quantities of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—and there is no end in sight for automobility.

It might be added that internal combustion has also been central to global violence and

war, as both target and means of war

Humans transform the material environment,

through technologies, ideas, practices

Sheer numbers of people, and high

levels of consumption in the North are stressing those environments

People are the “ultimate resource”for solving problems

People are also the ultimate source of

“problems”

So, why war?

I. DefinitionsII. ObjectivesIII. What we knowIV. Causes

Strength lies not in defense but in attack."- Marquis de Acerba

"We make war that we may live in peace."- Aristotle

"The purpose of all war is peace."- Saint Augustine, 354-430

I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."- Ulysses S. Grant

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."- Rear Adm. Grace Murray HopperA riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning."- Richard M. Nixon

War is often justified on the basis of its opposite

What is war?•Socially-organized violence among two or more groups or societies or countries

•Collapse of social order within a society

• Hobbes: “By war is meant a state of affairs, which may exist even while its operations are not continued”

•Diderot: “a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic;”

•von Clausewitz, “war is the continuation of politics by other means’

•Foucault: “politics is the continuation of war by other means

• OED: “a conflict between opposing forces or principles.”

What are the objectives of war?

Material Resources• Natural (e.g., oil)• Economic (e.g., industry)• Post-industrial (e.g.,

technology, scientists)

Social struggles for power

• Control of states & its power resources

• Struggles among countries for dominance

• Conflicts between groups for control and survival

Identity, influence & meaning

• Cultural struggles (culture wars)

• Religious conflicts

• Ideological conflicts

Even economic development

A propensity toward wars as a “solution” is deeply-embedded in our beliefs, institutions

and practices (political economy)

How do we know what we know about war?

Normalization begins early Through media

Memorials, rituals, mourning Schools, churches, stores

Even language

War offers an illusion of power and control

But wars never follow the desired or imagined plan; they are difficult to subject to control

How does Chris Hedges account for war?

• Most explanations focus on livelihood: how war is liked to production

• Hedges sees war as filling a deep human need for purpose: ontology

• War becomes crusade• These can operate in the

individual, in groups, in the nation

• Eros & thanatos?

By contrast, Robert Kaplan sees the sources of war in geography (geopolitics)

• Geography is immutable• Human societies adapt to

geography to survive• Hence, their character is

determined by geography• This operates in 2 ways:

– In terms of behaviors in war– In terms of prosecuting war

• What is determined cannot be changed: geographic space is national destiny!

What if the (nation)-state is war?