War is Inescapable Part of Human Experience
Serge Kharlamov
III-FPS-1
War is an Inescapable Part of Human Experience
War is so omnipresent and commonplace in human history that some scientists even claim that people's war-proneness could be explained by natural predisposition dictated by genes. Even though a military conflict is too complex to be triggered by nothing but an innate inclination, aggression that fuels it seems to be integral to social behaviour. Therefore, war can be regarded as an inescapable part of human existence. First of all, war is an essential part of social experience, as it is provoked by inevitable clashing of interests of nations on a global level. Such conflicts arise because of a perceived incompatibility of actions or goals of hostile parties. A good example here is a "Cold War logic" which only relatively recently stopped prevailing in international policies of the most of developed countries. It refers to the way of perceiving foreign affairs in general as a "zero sum game", meaning that there exist only two possibilities - victory or defeat. Consequently, human society is prone to war because rival parties see aims of each other as mutually exclusive.
Secondly, war often derives from people's most innate predisposition to survive in a world where resources are scarce. Such scarcity, has resulted in a some kind of struggle for existence leading back to the times, when ancestors of the Homo Sapiens competed with other species for food and habitat. Although nowadays people do not have to fight for such basic necessities, there always will be things considered to be rare and vital, for instance, oil and natural gas. Thus, it is one of the most primitive instincts of fighting for survival which makes one engage in warfare.
Last but not least, a military conflict is a ubiquitous phenomenon because war begets war. There can be seen a recurring pattern in the outbursts of international aggression - war spreads in the manner of an infection, reproducing
III-FPS-1
War is an Inescapable Part of Human Experience
War is so omnipresent and commonplace in human history that some scientists even claim that people's war-proneness could be explained by natural predisposition dictated by genes. Even though a military conflict is too complex to be triggered by nothing but an innate inclination, aggression that fuels it seems to be integral to social behaviour. Therefore, war can be regarded as an inescapable part of human existence. First of all, war is an essential part of social experience, as it is provoked by inevitable clashing of interests of nations on a global level. Such conflicts arise because of a perceived incompatibility of actions or goals of hostile parties. A good example here is a "Cold War logic" which only relatively recently stopped prevailing in international policies of the most of developed countries. It refers to the way of perceiving foreign affairs in general as a "zero sum game", meaning that there exist only two possibilities - victory or defeat. Consequently, human society is prone to war because rival parties see aims of each other as mutually exclusive.
Secondly, war often derives from people's most innate predisposition to survive in a world where resources are scarce. Such scarcity, has resulted in a some kind of struggle for existence leading back to the times, when ancestors of the Homo Sapiens competed with other species for food and habitat. Although nowadays people do not have to fight for such basic necessities, there always will be things considered to be rare and vital, for instance, oil and natural gas. Thus, it is one of the most primitive instincts of fighting for survival which makes one engage in warfare.
Last but not least, a military conflict is a ubiquitous phenomenon because war begets war. There can be seen a recurring pattern in the outbursts of international aggression - war spreads in the manner of an infection, reproducing