Introduction to Political Science (IRE 101) Week 10 Political Violence and Security

Transformation of conflict Historically, wars were fought primarily for material gain: livestock, treasure, tribute, or territory.  Today, international law generally prohibits military action by one state against another except for reasons of self-defense.

The Cold War Two superpower rivalry – United States and Soviet Union, obsessively intervening into all regions and corners of the world. Rigid structure of bipolarity. A clash of very different ideologies – capitalism versus communism – formed the basis of an international power struggle with both sides vying for dominance. No great power war directly. A lot of proxy wars between clients and allies of the great powers—Korea, Vietnam, et cetera.

The Cold War The first half of the 20th century is filled with the major powers fighting one another, and the second half of the 20th century does not see that.   ‘Cold War’ - involved covert activity, economic competition, propaganda. It's a heightened period of competition just short of war. The defining feature of the Cold War was, first, that it was cold. That is, short of bombs and bullets, the traditional means of war.

Nuclear Weapons CASE AGAINST: Cannot distinguish between civilians and soldiers, therefore seen as a historical mistake. No practical purpose other than mass killing. Evil weapons. You have only minutes to decide whether you will retaliate - insane arrangement. Risk of miscalculation and accident is great and the consequences devastating. Overall: excessive; provocative; irresponsible; and expensive. CASE FOR: Nuclear weapons have stabilizing effects. Keneth Waltz- chief proponent. Hypocracy: Why can America and Israel have them and Iran not?

9/11 and its impact on International Security In order to understand the shock you have to remember that America has always felt protected by its ocean. Officials created this paradigm were terrorism was presented as something capable of destroying their democracy, their freedom, their way of life. And the balance of power shifted substantially from freedom to security.

Iraq War Expectations & goals - Eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction - Transform Iraq into democracy. The rest of the region will follow. - Cheney: ‘We will be greeted as liberators’; War likely to last ‘weeks rather than months’ - President’s chief economic adviser: price tag might reach $200 billion

Reality - Bush (2004) ‘We didn’t find the stockpiles of weapons we all thought were there’ Iraq far from pro-American; Sectarian civil war. ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq’ springs up. Iraq ranked first in the 2012 Global Terrorism Index Price of war around $1 trillion dollars, 4489 US casualties

Post-9/11 Security Environment Threat from sources more varied and more unpredictable than during the Cold War. Globalization has created transnational, security issues, like terrorism, climate change, migrations, the drug trade, and the worldwide spread of diseases. Flows of money, viruses, technology, people across the borders.

Cyber security Cyber warfare is asymmetric; being cheap and destructive, it may nudge weaker states to conflicts with stronger states. Is cyber attack- infecting ones computer should be considered an act of war? NATO - Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty- attack on one country is attack on all member states. Cases - Stuxnet virus (2010), Edward Snowden.

Climate Change

The ‘good news’ Statistically, this is a world with fewer violent conflicts and greater political freedom than at virtually any other point in human history. All over the world, people enjoy longer life expectancy and greater economic opportunity than ever before. Wars between states have become extremely rare, and civil wars, after increasing in number from the 1960s through the 1990s, have declined in number.