War and Society Can war be an effective policy tool in the 21st century?

War is a very contentious issue plaguing modern day society. The prospect of war is exacerbated by the continual conflicts between self-serving nations. As such discrepancies continue to either strengthen or diminish once strong relationships between countries. In addition, technology and its rapid proliferation have contributed heavily to the overall war debate. Technology, and its rapid advancement makes, acquiring and replicating weapons of mass destruction more financially feasible. As the cost to produce weapons diminishes so too will the ability to strike unsuspecting nations. Factions that ordinary would not have the financial resources to construct or attack a country, now have the ability to do so in an effective manner. As such, it is my belief that war is not an effective policy tool for the 21st century. The ability to inflict massive causalities is simply too great. In addition, the ability for smaller unrelated factions, with radical ideas, to strike nations also increases exponentially each year. If countries simply resort to war to resolve policy disputes the ability to inflict massive amounts of irrevocable damage can become serious.

War in addition, isn't a good policy too as it creates further animosity and economic disruption in the long-term. In many instances, countries are concerned with the economic well-being of their citizenry. Japan's purposeful currency...

OPEC has the ability to control oil prices if they so wanted. China has lax intellectual property laws causing valuable American brands to be easily copied. All such policies cause economic hardship to one country as another gain economically. To resort to war, in these instances would do more harm than good and as such should never be used.
Thankfully, globalization has made war a more difficult proposition, as it has impacts on the entire society in which we live. For instance, hundreds of years ago, a war between two parties had limited economic effect on societies not participating. China for instance was walled off from civilization for many decades. War didn't effect the country as it would today primarily to globalization. As a policy tool, war would not only affect the countries in dispute, but it would also have implications for the entire global economy. This is due to the extreme interconnectedness of nations. The most recent example is the housing crisis of 2008, which harmed the entire world as oppose to just the United States. War would have the same effect as exports to countries would diminish exports, imports would be slowed and inspected, government spending would be altered, consumer sentiments and purchasing behavior would change, and so forth. Countries like China that export a disproportionate amount of their goods and servcies would be heavily…