Essay on Why Nations Go to War

“For war, as a grave act of killing, needs to be justified.” These words were written by Murray N. Rothbard, dean of the Austrian School and founder of modern libertarianism, who spent much of his academic career trying to determine what, exactly, defined a “just war”. In fact, for as long as humans have been fighting wars, there have been quotations referring to the justification and moralities of wars and how warfare can be considered fair and acceptable to each society’s individual standards. While the time and place of each war differs, the reality of the devastation of battle may be found warranted by those fighting using these just war standards to vindicate their actions.

“The Cause of War” is a book written by Australian author Geoffrey Blainey. The book is a collection of studies from wars since 1700’s and it analysis the relation of rivaling nations. The book is divided in four parts it starts discussing the weakness behind the current theories of peace, it then moves to talk the “ingredients” which are key for a nation to determine whether they will go to war or not. Third part of the group is about some misleading theories of war, and the last part just deals with the variety of war.

Just like the First World War, the fight wasn’t on American soil. When Germany began its invasion across Europe, The United States did not have any involvement nor was it looking to get involved in the war. It did not even join the war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Soon after the United States declared war on Japan, Germany declared war on the United States. The United State’s involvement in this war was in the second half of it. Hitler’s plans did not involve the United States. In fact “Under no circumstances did Hitler desire to engage the United States until he had fully liquidated Soviet Russia.” Hitler knew that he was not initially powerful enough to defeat the American forces when he began his reign and takeover of Europe, but he was expecting that his military would not be

There are many reasons why countries go to war. One country may want to go to war to take revenge on something that another country or countries did to them. Germany, for example, wanted to take revenge on the rest of the European nations after they all unanimously agreed that the responsibility for the First World War should be laid upon Germany. Countries also go to war for another reason, territorial expansion. The crusades were a good example of this because even though they started out a holy war, they converted into wars that focused on expanding borders. There are many other reasons why wars start, but revenge and land expansion are the two greatest ones.

This essay will examine all nine readings. There will also be insight given to why the United States entered World War I, and whether or not the reasons were persuasive. Other things will also be discussed, including: what America’s war aims were, and how Wilson’s goals were unrealistic, misleading, overly idealistic and moralistic. The fact that Wilson expected too much of international law and international organization. Also, why Wilson’s goals were not achieved. That the national interest is what should guide American diplomacy. There was also a lot of questions of loyalty and civil liberties that were raised by the war.

Have you heard about Korean War, which occurred in June, 25, 1950? The conflict between ideologies caused this war with tens of millions killed, millions of families separated, the country reduced to rubble, and a huge permanent scar on Korea’s culture. Then, Vietnam War, Gulf War, or Iraq war can sound familiar to you. Let’s change point to the number of dead bodies from wars themselves. Can you guess how many people got killed during all of those war periods? Only for Vietnam War, the true civilians of Vietnam War were two millions in the north, and another two millions in the south, and military causalities were 1.1 million killed and six hundreds thousand wounded during war. To finish a war, how many innocent people and soldiers have

Living space then, was a necessary objective in Hitler 's eyes, but in order to achieve this space he needed to develop Germany 's army first. So he did. Between 1933 and 1939 the Treaty of Versailles was secretly avoided to massively increase the size of the German army, from 100,000 to 300,00017. The Luftwaffe, German air force, also rapidly increased and by 1940 it was the strongest among all the European powers. The German war machine was impressive, in just six years it went from being the weakest army to one of the strongest18. However, this created a vicious circle in terms of foreign policy for Germany: Hitler wanted living space, so he built up the army. However, in order to pay for this rapid rearmament, he had to conquer territories. Thus, Hitler made war profitable and a key part of the foreign policy of Germany19.

In his book Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer discusses the intricacies of noncombatant immunity. Walzer defines noncombatants as those who are immune from direct attack by an enemy. He derives this immunity from an individual’s natural rights to life and liberty. Walzer explains that an individual who threatens these natural rights of others loses his immunity, rendering this individual a combatant, and he can therefore be subject to direct attack by an enemy. Walzer further elaborates on this point by providing the example of soldiers.

The invasion of the Soviet Union can be seen as one of Hitler’s greatest blunders. In 1941 Hitler and Stalin were in a non-aggression pact. Hitler decided to waive that pact and invade the Soviet Union in 1941 with Operation Barbarossa. Hitler’s decision to invade the Soviet Union was a great risk and ultimately led to the 3rd Reich’s downfall. The Soviet Union was a country full of vast resources and a higher population than Germany. There seems to be so many risks involved with attacking the Soviet Union. So why was the Soviet Union attacked by Germany in 1941?

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children. This famous quote is from James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., who served as the 39th President of the United States. It implies that war can be justified under strict circumstances where it can be necessary, but it is still abhorrent. War is defined as a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country. Justification refers to the action of showing something to be right or reasonable. War brings many negative and catastrophic impacts not just to the country, but to the people living in the country as well, which this paper

Hitler also wanted to eliminate the Jews and the spread of communism. According to Overy, “German forces entered the USSR with instructions from Hitler’s headquarters to use the most brutal methods to keep control and to murder Communist commissars and Jews in the service of the Soviet Union” (BBC.com). Hitler thought that by preventing the spread of communism and murdering Jews, Germany would have a greater advantage of

War is controversial, unfortunate, and certainly misunderstood; it is a transforming agent, a catalyst for change. Nonetheless, many people focus on war's negative consequences, while positive effects are downplayed. War is a necessary evil in the sense that it stabilizes population, encourages technological advances, and has a very high economic value. Without war, the overpopulation of the human race is inevitable. It is this reason that war is a useful tool by not only Mother Nature, but also humans themselves to institute population control.

Today, almost no one can give an accurate answer to why the USA is almost always at war. Many Americans say that it is to protect our freedom. Whether it is to protect our rights and freedom or to control resources in other countries, there is most certainly a lack of ethics behind going to war that needs to be addressed.

There were many reasons that contributed to Hitler's invasion of the USSR. Hitler had always harboured a hatred for the Slavs, he thought they were inferior, impure people who were only fit to be used as slaves. This was a racist attitude

1. International conflict among countries is more likely of what we may think. Today there are many different ongoing conflicts. International conflict is a stage of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more states (Malek). The term "international conflict" referred to conflicts between different nations and conflicts between people and organizations in different nations (Mr. Turetzky lec 11). It also applies to inter-group conflicts within one country when one group is fighting for independence or increased social, political, or economic power. International conflicts can be divided into two branches: private international conflict and public international conflict. A private international conflict is a disagreement