Chapter 16: Global Social Problems Flashcards
Characteristics of War
Definition = Armed conflict between two nations or between political factions within a country.
collective violence by people seeking to promote their cause or to resist social policies or practices they they consider harmful, oppressive, and unjust
more lives were lost in wars during the 20th C than in all of the other centuries combined = ~ 100 million persons
Canada as a Peace Keeper
1956, Secretary of State Lester B. Pearson sent Canadian forces to the Suez Canal Nobel Peace Prize in 1957
provide buffer zones, observers for troop withdrawals, monitor ceasefires, physical barriers against violence, monitor military embargos, enforce no-fly zones
in Cypress, the Middle East, Haiti, Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Angola, etc.
1993 Somalia scandal; 1993-94 Rwanda failure
Canadian peacekeeping is greatly diminished, ie. only 55 of the 100,000 UN peacekeepers were Canadian in 2006.
The Military-Industrial Complex
interdependence of the military establishment and private military contractors that emerged during WWII
War becomes necessary to support this significant portion of the US economy
$645.7 billion, US ranks #1 in the world (Kendall, 346)
personnel, development of weapons and technology, manufacture of artillery and machinery, warships and airplanes, software, etc.
2017 US federal budget includes plans to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut non-military programs by the same amount
Causes of War
Conflict over land and other natural resources Conflict over values and ideologies Racial and ethnic hostilities Defense against hostile attacks Revolution Nationalism
Human Consequences of War
1) Human consequences
due to direct and indirect violence
2) Economic consequences
in 2015, US spent 3.3% of its GDP on military; Canada spends 1.0%; the world figure is 2.3%. (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS)
opportunity costs and future economic costs of national debt (Crawford 2017, Watson Institute for International Studies, http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/)
3) Environmental consequences
emission of more toxins into the atmosphere, land, water than any industry
no safe means of disposing huge stockpiles of weapons from disarmament treaties or of long-term radioactive waste from nuclear weapon production
Terrorism
the use of calculated, unlawful physical force or threats of violence against a govt, organization, or individual to gain some political, religious, economic, or social objective (Kendall, 352)
Kinds:
Revolutionary terrorism (internal enemies)
Repressive terrorism (government against its citizens)
State-sponsored terrorism (government elsewhere)
Cyber-attacks
Home-grown terrorism
Policy in Response to Terrorism
Anti-Terrorism Act passed immediately after 9/11 with US Patriot Act, Dec/01
Conferred new powers on the Canadian government to: conduct preventative investigations and arrests; to ignore privacy law in cases of national security; to deport to countries in war zones (against international law)
amended other laws, eg. Criminal Code, Privacy Act, Citizenship Act, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Public Safety Act
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
preoccupation with issues of security, criminality, terrorism
9 categories of inadmissibility
broad parameters for “membership in a terrorist group”
only “reasonable grounds to believe” that the particular grounds for inadmissibility “have occurred, are occurring or may occur” some day in the future
Criticisms = the definition of terrorism could include legitimate protest and family members with no knowledge of terrorist activities; removal of due process for suspected individuals; no transparency = reduced civil liberties; it facilitates Islamophobia
Maher Arar
September, 2002
Syrian-born Canadian engineer, way home to Montreal from Zurich after a family vacation, landed at NY Kennedy Airport
US authorities suspected ties to al Qaeda and deported Arar to Syria without consulting Canadian officials
Foreign Affairs had no evidence to implicate Arar, but US didn’t care
held in Syrian prison for almost a year; he was beaten, tortured, refused contact with family or lawyer
cleared of all terrorism allegations in September 2006
Functionalism
Why is war waged?
Because means of peaceful resolution are not known or tried; values, institutions are not shared; breakdown of peace; war is highly valued in some societies
What function does war serve?
technological advancements = laser surgery, nuclear power, air travel, internet, robotics (Kendall, 351)
stimulates the economy; unites nations; settles disputes; punishes enemies; enriches nations; spreads ideologies
Conflict Theory
war enhances the status, role of the military
protects private domestic interests
military-industrial complex
Interactionism
Why do people engage in war? How is war learned?
language, labels, propaganda used by govt, business, military, media
eg. “war on terror,” “casualties,” “collateral damage” legitimizes collective violence and reduces the emotional impact of death
social construction of masculinity; socialization of boys violence, aggression
Feminism
women are the targets of massacres in wars
rape = recognized as a war crime
captive women are booty of warfare
liberal feminism = women to assume more active roles in war, military/political leadership
materialism feminism = roots of warfare lie in structured gendered inequality
intersectionality (multicultural feminism) = racialized women reveal the particular impact war has on them
