Why Do People Fight Wars?

As a Publisher's Note makes clear before the start of this book, "Why Do People Fight Wars?" was scheduled to go to press right around September 11, 2001. The Publisher's Note calls the event the most devastating attack every launched on the American mainland by a foreign enemy and "a terrifying new chapter" in our history as well as "a new chapter in the history of warfare." The bottom line is that "experts agree that the attacks require a new examination of why people fight wars."This volume in the Exploring Tough Issue series will provide some help in that direction. The problem is that defining "war," the requisite first step in a look at this topic, is inherently problematic. Ali Brownlie and Chris Mason start with a definition of "legalized violence" and compare the traditional notion of war with the various types of wars being fought today. This explains while their brief history of war really does not go back beyond the 19th century, when wars were first fought by industrial nations. The inherent problems of the questions asked in this book--such as Why Do Wars Start?, Why Do People Fight?, Why Do Children Fight?--have to do with the topic rather than the authors, beyond the fact that each question is given a two-page spread in which it can be answered. Ultimately this book provides an overview on topics such as Types of Wars, Rules of War, and the Impact of War. What will prove most useful to students is the unit on Questions About Wars: Can War Ever Be Justified? More than Fighting? and Are Wars Reported Accurately? All of these questions are probably more important to students who are watching the nightly news and hearing that the next stage of the War on Terrorism could very well be an invasion of Iraq. The final unit raises the issues of Intervention and Mediation, so certainly the book does not take a pro-War stance, but clearly there are legitimate concerns to be raised about all of these issues in terms of what has happened the past year. Young students will probably have more questions to ask once they read the questions and answers Brownlie and Mason provide in "Why Do People Fight Wars?" But engendering discussion and dialogue should be considered laudable in these times with regards to these topics. The problem will be coming up with answers, because I would certainly not want to pretend that I had any on these topics. Still, they have to be discussed and they need to be discussed with students.