4. Causes of Interstate Conflict Flashcards
Causes of Interstate Conflict INTRO?
The causes of interstate conflict can vary markedly and are specific to conflicts; although, this is not to say there are not broad categories of causes available for distinction.
- War as an Instrument of State Policy Definition?
War is used as a foreign policy strategy in three key ways: defence, deterrence and compulsion. This sees war being used by states as a means of defending its territory or interests from attack, dissuading another state from attacking or using the actual or threatened use of force to compel an adversary to change its behaviour. War is therefore a foreign policy instrument available to states to achieve their national interests (which could lead to stability in the state using war as an instrument).
- War as an Instrument of State Policy
EXTRA?
- The proper relationship of war and politics, according to Carl Von Clausewitz, is that war must always be subordinate to policy and serve as a means to a political end.
- On War explains that indeed, warfare must not exist in the absence of policy nor without a political purpose guiding it.
- One must look at the reason warfare is waged and see the only reason to use it is to achieve a political gain.
- War as an Instrument of State Policy
Defence?
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- War as an Instrument of State Policy
Deterrence?
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- War as an Instrument of State Policy
Compulsion?
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- War as an Instrument of State Policy
EVIDENCE?>
“Policy is the guiding intelligence and war only the instrument”
“The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose” (Clausewitz, 87).
“War is merely the continuation of policy by other means” (Clausewitz, 87)
Clausewitz maintains that “All wars can be considered acts of policy” (Clausewitz, 88) and therefore the military cannot not operate independent of the political aims.
- Economic Development and its Link to Conflict DEFINITION?
States which are economically developed are less likely to experience conflict (both intrastate and interstate). This is because states that are economically developed are more likely to be engaged in the global economy and thus more dependent on one another (interdependency), and, as a result, are less likely to engage in conflict which will impact on their mutual prosperity.
- Economic Development and its Link to Conflict
EXTRA
- Conversely, the demand for markets and resources increases the likelihood of conflict between capitalist states whose “expansion could only come at someone else’s expense, thereby leading to war”.
- War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth.
- Economic factors are often perceived to be the grounds for conflict, although states are likely to use the umbrella of other factors to justify their actions.
- Economic Development and its Link to Conflict
Brian-Vincent ?
Charles Boehmer?
The proponents of economic theory contend that the propensity to indulge in violent conflict is higher for low income or less educated people. A corollary of this position is that poor economic conditions and low quality of life could serve as a breeding ground for conflict.
Brian-Vincent |Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice | Keele University.
Studies of conflict typically claim that lower rates of economic growth and domestic unrest increase the risk of militarized interstate conflict. However… research shows that these factors also are related to regime transitions. I find that higher rates of economic growth are related to militarized interstate conflicts and decreases in regime transitions. Democracy and economic development likewise provide internal stability and interstate peace.
Charles Boehmer| Department of Political Science| Pennsylvania State University
- Economic Development and its Link to Conflict
EVIDENCE?
- USA: State Fragility Index 2004: 2 Income Per Capita 2004: 40,292
- Sudan: State Fragility Index 2004: 22 Income Per Capita 2004: 557
- DRCongo: State Fragility Index 2004: 23 Income Per Capita 2004: 124
80% of the world’s 20 poorest states have suffered major civil wars since 1990.
This was the case with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of The Willing, with many critics arguing that the real motivation for the invasion was long term oil security.
- Democratic Peace Theory DEFINITION?
This theory posits that democracies are less likely to engage in conflict than their counterparts. Democratic Peace Theory suggests that peaceful relations are more likely to exist between democracies because they are defined by their respect for individual rights and liberties and non-violent means of conflict resolutions; and because the domestic checks and balances that exist in democracies slow any decision to go to war.
- Democratic Peace Theory
Extra?
- It is a theory which posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies.
- Can also be labelled terms such as “mutual democratic pacifism” or “inter-democracy nonaggression hypothesis” so as to clarify that a state of peace is not singular to democracies, but rather that it is easily sustained between democratic nations.
- Among proponents of the Democratic Peace Theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between liberal states:
i) Democratic leaders are forced to accept culpability for war losses to a voting public;
ii) Publicly accountable statesmen are more inclined to establish diplomatic institutions for resolving international tensions;
iii) Democracies are less inclined to view countries with adjacent policy and governing doctrine as hostile;
iv) Democracies tend to possess greater public wealth than other states, and therefore eschew war to preserve infrastructure and resources;
- Democratic Peace Theory
EVIDENCE??
“Democratic Peace Theory is the theory that liberal democracies don’t go to war with one another. The theory is used by neoconservatives to justify war (ironically enough), as long as that war is “spreading democracy,” like the 2003 Iraq War.”
- Although statistically the probability of war between any two states is considerably low, the absence of war among liberal democracies across a wide range of different historical, economic, and political factors suggests that there is a strong predisposition against the use of military violence between democratic states.
Bush Doctrine: “America will encourage the advancement of democracy and economic openness in both (Iraq and Afghanistan)…because these are the best foundations for domestic stability and international order”.
- The Clash of Civilisations definition?
This theory argues that the fundamental source of conflict in the post-Cold War world is cultural, as opposed to ideological or economic factors, as put forward by Samuel P. Huntingdon in 1993. However, analysis of conflicts reveals that more conflicts have occurred within the eight large civilisations than between them.
