PHYSICS 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: World Politics, Aphorism, John Stuart Mill
Document Summary
// war = sustained, coordinated violence between political organisations (pg. 5) War is violent - involves the use of force to kill and injure people and destroy military and economic resources. Conflicts of interests - over power, territory, resources, and symbolic issues - are common in world politics. But conflicts of interests and threats of force do not become war unless they involve sustained violence. Rivalries and conflicts of interest are common - wars are not. War is between" two political organisations a-------b. Joint outcome of the behaviour of two or more actors. Individuals fight but on behalf of a larger collective political unit. War is fundamentally coercive, driven by the aim of influencing the behaviour of other states. Sometimes the immediate goal of the use of force is not to influence the enemy"s behaviour directly but instead to destroy or weaken his military forces or economic forces. Sometimes the threat of force alone is enough to change the adversary"s behaviour.
