Invention of Peace: Discussion 1

¶ … Invention of Peace: Discussion 1 - Does not peace itself create the conditions that will ultimately lead to war? (Question # 2). No. Hobbes described peace very narrowly as a period when war is neither being planned nor actively waged (Howard 2000). But peace also describes the absence of the conditions and circumstances that lead to war. By this broader definition, a period where war is neither being planned nor waged might still fail to constitute peace if conditions of that period are characterized by the dissatisfaction or fear on the part of one or more parties to that peace. The dissatisfaction of one or more parties to any peace and/or the fear of one or more parties to any peace from other parties to that peace are conditions that could eventually cause war. In that case, it is the instability of the peace that causes its failure rather than the existence of genuine peace.

I - the Invention of Peace: Discussion 2 - if nuclear weapons have made war ultimately suicidal for mankind, what can be done about it? (Question #5). Once the technology for nuclear weapons is "out of the bottle" it cannot be contained or destroyed. There are two principal ways of addressing the nuclear threat:

1) securing fissionable uranium and existing weapons, and (2) providing sufficient incentive to nations seeking military use of nuclear power to deter its pursuit of nuclear weapons technology. That has been the purpose of the international Non-proliferation

Treaty (NPT). Under the NPT, the international community offers carrots to cooperative nations and displays a stick to less cooperative nations instead of a positive incentive.

II - Discussion 1 - the Origins and Principal Global Effects of World War I:

When a Serbian terrorist assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo, Austro-Hungary demanded concessions from Serbia to squash nationalistic and anti-Austro-Hungarian demonstrations. When Serbia refused, Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, forcing the mobilization of Russia to prevent the destruction of Serbia.

German forces mobilized in support of Austro-Hungary by prior agreement, and declared war on Russia in response to her mobilization of forces.

To avoid a war on two fronts, Germany attacked France because of the fear that France would attack Germany once Germany and Russia went to war against each other.

Britain entered the war against Germany because Germany invaded Belgium to bypass the most fortified approaches into France. By 1917, German attacks on neutral shipping bound for England provoked the U.S. To enter the war as well. Some of the first action of the wider war was the occupation of German colonies in Asia and Africa. By the end of the war, England was poised to rule much of the Middle East until after World War II, which control was ratified soon after the end of World War I by the Balfour Declaration.