Headline, October 25 2023/ ''' WARS WITHOUT WARS '''

''' WARS WITHOUT

 WARS '''

THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY - the most democratic organization in the world - is mankind's  only hope '' to become an architect for the future of humanity.''

! First and Foremost ! The World Students Society is the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student of US, just as it is owned by the students of the entire world. '' Welcome to !E-WOW!.'' Welcome to Ecosystem 2011......... ! looking for a path to peace !.

IF WARS are '' the least rationale of human projects,'' why have there been so many of them all over the world, in every era? This is the question that the sociologist Michael Mann posses in the boldly titled '' ON WARS.''

It is an ambitious book, plumbing the rooms war from early Romans Republic to Valdimir Putin's Russia, with intermediary chapters on ancient and imperial China, Mongol conquests, feudal Japan, the carnage of European Christendom, clashes in pre-Columbian and Latin America, the two world wars, colonial incursions, communist conflicts, India and Pakistan wars, and the wars of Middle East.

Michael Mann, the author of the four-volume '' The Sources of Social Power, '' disputes the idea that humans are genetically programmed to make war. '' Organized war became ubiquitous, '' he contends, only when ''fixed agrarian settlements generates states and social classes.''

In other words, '' societies, not universal human nature, cause wars'' - though, now that humans are entrenched in societies, this seems a distinction without a difference.

WHATEVER the motives that lead us to fight, Mann sees his project as more than a scholarly inquiry; his aim is to find a way out for humanity.

'' If we want to achieve Immanuel Kant's ideal of perpetual peace,'' he writes, '' we need to know what to avoid that otherwise might lead to war.''

As one way to get at the problem, he examines the time and places where wars have not occurred. He highlights southeastern China, which fought only a handful of wars between 1368 and 1841, because its emperors devised a ''defensive, diplomatic imperialism'' based on tribute trade.

Vietnamese and Korean ambassadors would sail with their merchants to Chinese ports, bow so deeply before the emperor that their foreheads touched the ground and then sailback with gifts of silk and gold, which put everyone in a good mood.

[ Over the same period, north western China waged countless wars, mainly because agriculturists abutted pastoralists, a class condition for conflict. ]

Less compellingly, he writes that Africa, though roiled by civil wars, has seen few interstate conflicts in the past 80 years, because leaders have accepted the borders they inherited from the colonialists. Intriguing though he doesn't explain why this is true in Africa, but not, say in the Middle East.

Mann is persuasive in rebutting other theorists on why nations do or don't fight. He largely rejects the Realist school, which dominates political science and holds that, in an archaic world, leaders make rational decisions to protect their interests.

HE correctly argues that this view understates the role that domestic politics play in matters of war or peace, as well as the persistence of miscalculation, emotions and other stupidity among decision makers.

What was the cool-headed self-interest, he properly asks, that led to World War 1? 

He also convincingly trashes the notion, put forth by Steven Pinker and others, that wars are more rare and less savage than they once were, owing to the rise of democracy, international trade or other civilizing influence.

In fact, Mann argues, modern wars tend to be more violent, as '' civilization makes killing easier, more organized, more legitimate and more efficient.'' They are started by nations of every political system, including democracies.

Finally, though interstate wars have declined in number, civil wars have not - and many civil wars are aggravated or instigated by major or regional powers as proxy or colonial battles.

The Publishing continues to Part 2. The World Students Society thanks author Fred Kaplan.

With most loving and respectful dedication to The Global Founder Framers of  The World Students Society : Rabo, Dee, Haleema, Emaan [LUMS], Sahar [Canada], Juniper [Japan], Lakshmi [India], Hanyia [Europe] -

Toby [China], Salar, Hussain, Zaeem, Ali [UAE], Shahrayar, Ahsen, Bilal, Jordan [US], Mustafa [US],  Ghazi, Hamza [UK], Sannan [Germany], Danyial [UK], Vishnu [India] and all the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

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