peace st 2bb3 (2010/11) lecture 13. where to from here

8/7/2019 PEACE ST 2BB3 (2010/11) Lecture 13. Where to From Here

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Lecture 13

Monday April 4, 2011

PEACE ST 2BB3: Introduction to the Study of War

Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

Where to from here?War today

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Outline

What does war mean

Wars role in society Social implications

What does the present-future hold?

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What is war?

...to different people war may have very different

meanings.Quincy Wright (1942)

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What is war?

The cops stop you just cause you blackthats warRun your prints through the system thats warWhen they call my hood a drug zone thats warSlum lords charge me for the rent thats warWhy they so rich and we poor thats warWhen they murdered Amado Dialo thats war

Dead Prez (2002) Thatss Warlyrics

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I think its important for us to sit back and think not justabout the Gulf War, not just about the Vietnam War, notjust this or that war, but to think about the problem ofwar, of ust and un ust war.

Howard Zinn (2002)

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One does not make wars less likely by formulating rulesof warfare. War cannot be humanized. It can only beabolished.

Albert Einstein, in Howard Zinn (2002)

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The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its

destruction and carnage it can give us what we long forin life.

Chris Hedges (2002)

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Ive never felt freer in my life. Theres no higher

assertion of your freedom, than to follow yourconscience.

Camilo Mejia

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Conscientious objection

The right to conscientious objection to military serviceis considered a legitimate exercise of the right tofreedom of thought, conscience and religion as

articulated implicitly in article 18 of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 18 ofthe Universal Declaration of Human Rights, andexplicitly by the Human Rights Committee in its general

comment No. 22 on article 18 of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Rachel Taylor and Kasper Jon Larsen (2004)

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The United States, I think, still sees war as a necessarypart of its existence. Its impossible to maintain the

military on that scale, a Pentagon on that scale, withoutturning it over. Youve got to have officers who areexperienced in command and control. Youve got to havetroops who have been bloodied.

David Cornwell (aka John Le Carr)

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Does a new kind of war render traditional legalrestraints on warfare void and justify new rules?Helen Dexter (2007)

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Next years wars?

33 conflicts in 2010

Speculation on 16 new conflicts in 2011

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Summary

war will be with us for some time to come

How will it be waged?

The legacy is more far reaching than is oftenconsidered

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Citations & further reading

David Cornwell, aka John l)e Carr (2010), interviewed by Amy Goodman & DenisMoynihan on Democracy Now, October 11.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/11/exclusive_british_novelist_john_le_carr

Helen Dexter (2007) New War, Good War and the War on Terror: Explaining,

Excusing and Creating Western Neo-interventionism, Development and Change, Vol.38, No. 6:10551071

Chris Hedges (2002) War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, New York: Public Affairs.

Howard Zinn (2002) Failure to Quit: Reflections on an Optimistic Historian, Cambridge:South End Press. pp. 99-115 ( Just and Unjust Wars).

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Image sources

Pablo Picasso (1937) Guernica. Oil on canvas.

Unknown soldier in Iraq. Date unknown. sourced from http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/some-interior-situational-sources-war--part-v/

Carlos Latuff (2003) War 2. Sourced from http://latuff2.deviantart.com/art/War-2-27832944

Crimethinc (undated) War on Terror/Drugs. http://www.crimethinc.com/tools/downloads/

Shaney Komulainen of Canadian Press (Sept 1 1990) Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimetersentry, and Mohawk Warrior Brad "Freddy Krueger" Larocque face off. Remixed by dangerousbob,deviantART http://dangerousbob.deviantart.com/art/Okarom-Crisis-79679086

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Video Sources

PW Singer on military robots and the future of war, April 2009.http://www.ted.com/talks/pw_singer_on_robots_of_war.html

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peace st 2bb3 (2010/11) lecture 13. where to from here

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