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War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2010

John Kekes
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Abstract

This article is an explanation of the causes of war. It shows the inadequacy of existing explanations in terms of competition for scarce resources, aggressiveness as a trait inherent in human nature, and struggle for power. It constructs a new explanation that combines the defensible elements of the inadequate explanations and adds to them conflicts between systems of value on which the identity of the warring parties depends as the most important of the causes of war. It concludes that since values are plural and conflicting, conflicts between systems of value are ineliminable. This has the consequence that war is a permanent adversity that is an unavoidable obstacle to the improvement of the human condition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 201 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2010

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References

1 Ferguson, Niall, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, (New York: Penguin, 2006)Google Scholar, xi.

2 Ibid. 649. See also Rummel, R.J., Death by Government, (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994)Google Scholar for extensive statistical evidence and nation-by-nation breakdown of the figures.

3 Howard, Michael, The Invention of Peace: Reflections on War and International Order, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 1Google Scholar.

4 For an extensive discussion and bibliography, see May's, Larry trilogy: Crimes against Humanity, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)Google Scholar, War Crimes and Just War, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Aggression and Crimes against Peace, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). See also Brian Orend, ‘War’ in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries.

5 LeBlanc, Steven A., Constant Battles, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003)Google Scholar. Parenthetical references in the text are to LeBlanc, followed by the page numbers of this work.

6 Rosen, Stephen Peter, War and Human Nature, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)Google Scholar and Smith, David Livingstone, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007)Google Scholar. Parenthetical references in the text are to Rosen or Smith, followed by the page numbers of one or the other book.

7 My thinking about the complexity of these decisions has been deeply influenced by Howard's, MichaelStudies in War and Peace, (New York: Viking, 1972)Google Scholar and The Lessons of History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), Keegan's, JohnA History of Warfare, (New York: Knopf, 1993)Google Scholar, Kershaw's, IanFateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941, (New York: Penguin, 2007)Google Scholar, McNamara's, Robert S.In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, (New York: Random House, 1995)Google Scholar, and Overy's, RichardWhy the Allies Won, (New York: Norton, 1995)Google Scholar.

8 Broody, Bernard, War and Politics, (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 339Google Scholar.

9 Howard, Michael, The Causes of War, The Creighton Trust Lecture, (London: University of London, 1981), 6Google Scholar.

10 Ibid. 9.

11 Michael Howard, ‘War and Social Change’ in The Lessons of History, loc. cit., 166.

12 Ibid.

13 Howard, Causes of War, 5–6.

14 Howard, ‘The Lessons of History’ in The Lessons of History, loc. cit., 13.

15 For further examples, see Kagan's, RobertThe Return of History and The End of Dreams, (New York: Knopf, 2008)Google Scholar.