Is War Inevitable?

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 9 essays on International Politics that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

Is War Inevitable?

Is perpetual peace a utopian ideal? This subject has been the centre of political discourse in the sphere of international relations. While it is worth looking at the insights that have arisen amongst rational choice theorists, constructivists and critical theorists, this essay will focus more on the great debate between Liberalism and Realism before converging on the Neo-Neo debate. I will, using the three images of international relations framework1 that emerged from Kenneth N Waltz, examine the causes of war and whether or not they could be prevented.

Realist assumptions about men, from Hobbes to Spinoza to Morganthau share one common trait: that men are by nature bad. According to Spinoza, men are led not by precepts of pure reason but by their passions. It is this passion which can lead to irrationality, to selfishness, to misdirected aggressiveness that draws men into conflict. For Morganthau, it is man's 'ineradicable' lust for power that results in frictions and wars among states. If man's nature is the primary cause of war, does it imply the elimination of war could only be done through the enlightenment of man?

Unlike realists, idealists believe in the optimistic