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Summary Core Module International Relations - Block 2 Readings
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Core Module International Relations - Block 2 Readings
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Notes Readings IR 2Week 8-9
War
Mary Kaldor
● Focus on the distinction between new wars & old wars
1) Actors
- Old: Traditional military (state)
- New: Many (transnational + domestic) → Ex: Organised groups
2) Goals
- Old: Geo-political / ideological Ex: Democracy v Communism
- New: Identity politics → Clash of identities: Ex: Religion, ethnicity
3) Methods
- Old: Capture territory via military means → Battles & decisive encounters
- New Wars: a) Guerilla
- Capture territory via political control of population
not military
b) Counter-insurgency
- Destabilise via “fear and hatred”
- Control population by controlling territory
4) Financing
- Old: State & taxes
- New: Globalised war economies = Decentralised, dependent on external
resources + smuggling goods
● New wars → Not necessarily new but different
○ Globalisation brought all factors at the same time:
1) Involvements of non-state actors
2) Focus on identity grievances
3) Reliance on asymmetric warfare tactics
● Globalisation
○ Blurs distinction between → War / organised crime / large-scale violations of HR
○ Has led to → 1) Fragmentation v integration
2) Homogenisation v diversification,
3) Localisation v globalisation
4) Erosion of state sovereignty
○ Globalisation has influenced the character of war → “New War”
,Kalyvas
● Focus
○ Civil wars from a new perspective → Civil wars are not binary conflicts
○ Civil wars are complex , ambiguous & multifaceted processes
- Foster a mix of identities & actions → Not only result of individuals/groups
- Interaction between political/private identities + interests
- Examines social processes + structures
- Characteristics of → Intimacy vs Barbarity
● Cleavages
○ Civil Wars: Process that provide a medium for a variety of existing grievances to be
realised within violence
- Shaped by local cleavages → Master cleavages fail to
account for nature of conflict
○ Cleavages can be → 1) Pre Existing
- Pre existing→ War activates the fault line
- They are politicised into national structure of
cleavages
- Autonomy diminishes → Manifestation of central
cleavage
2) War Introduced
- Generate new → Power shifts at local level
- Potent cleavage → Generational
- Rebels recruit young people to repress elderly
Fazal & Poast
● He argues War is not in Decline
○ Recent history does not point to a decline in war
- This is too good to be true → Optimism built on shaky foundations
● Notion that War is in Decline → Based on 2 Insights:
1) Few people die in battles
○ Relying on body counts to determine if armed conflict is decreasing is
problematic:
a. Improvement in medicine lowered the risk of dying in battle
- Focusing on dead means ignoring the massive costs of war
b. Personal protective equipment has evolved
- Better sanitation, cleanliness, food distribution & water
purification
- As sanitation improves so does the survivability
, 2) Rise of democracy & trade
○ There was not been a world war since 1945
○ Nuclear weapons → Deterrent potential
- Keeps great powers from going to full-blown war
● Wars Today
○ Armed Conflicts Today → Last longer
○ Through globalisation and Cold War → 1) Linked disparate communities
2) More Borders
3) More Civil Wars
4) Higher military expenditures
● Underestimating the risk of future war → Lead to fatal mistakes
○ New technologies heighten danger → No consensus on how to respond
○ False sense of security could lead leaders to repeat mistakes
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