Globalization and War

IS403 Lecture Globalization and War §

Class: IS403 Created Time: November 26, 2021 2:30 PM Database: Class Notes Database Last Edited Time: January 17, 2022 9:25 PM Type: Lecture, Reading Notes

• How have globalization changed or affect nature of war?

  • Past wars
  • New wars/post-modern war
    • new nature of war
  • How war changed or influenced by globalization

• Cold War was a turning point: wars saw a sharp decline in numbers

  • War between great powers more unlikely
  • Changes in international system is changing characters of war

• Which aspects of wars have changed: New or Post-Modern War

  • New planes of warfare by Non-states warfare in ‘new war theater’
    • Global media
    • Cyberspace: hacking, disrupting communication
    • Terrorist operation
  • Battlefield has now become ‘Battlespace’
    • Airpower
    • Use of Space satellites
    • Cyberspace & communication
  • Remotely piloted drones: non-human combatants

Definition of War §

• War in the past “an act of force intended to compel our opponents to fulfil our will”

  • “a continuation of political intercourse with a mixture of other means”
  • War is a form of politics

• War now: is harder to define because Non-State actors

  organised violence carried on by political units against each other

Nature of War §

• Violence is a necessary, but not a sufficient, requirement for a conflict to be defined as a war.
• War is fought for reasons
• Contemporary warfare is being influenced by globalization.
• War requires highly organized societies.
  • Internal Scale Cooperation: is possible which war requires a society to cooperate in performing complex tasks on a large scale.
  • External Scale Cooperation: is difficult to cooperate making hostilities
• War can be a powerful catalyst for change.
• The nature of war remains constant, but its form reflects the particular era and environment in which it occurs.

Contemporary warfare takes place in a local context,

• but it is also played out in wider fields and influenced by
  • non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, regional and global media, and users of the Internet.
  • In many ways, contemporary wars are partly fought on television, and the media therefore have a powerful role in providing a framework of understanding for viewers of the conflict.
• As the world is now interconnected, wars are hard and too costly to manage than just cooperating or solving arguments peacefully

	Past Wars	Modern War
Parties	Inter-State Wars	Intra-State War, different factions & groups in control of each part of state
Consequences	Only affect rural people	affects everyone, Mass destruction & deaths, genocide, global economic ripple
Means	Conventional weapons, airforce, navy	More destructive capabilities, nuclear weapons, cyberattack, satellite
Causes	Pursue state’s objectives

• Size of state and power determines war strategy of states
  • Powerful states try to catch up on arms race
  • Weak states practice guerilla tactics, whoever lasts the longest will survive
• Globalization increases the sales of weapons around the world