Factors That Lead to War

A war is started to settle an arousal of disputes over matters of territory, sovereignty, resource and ideology when no peaceful solution is available, utilized, or searched. By the word territory, we are pointing to the land which nations possess, and sovereignty refers to the authority power of the leaders of each country. Resource is the materials of which a country is able to produce with the availability of certain goods, while ideology is the system of ideas and beliefs of which humans possess and is able to conclude certain actions by their own will

The most basic motivation of war is the willingness of oneself to start it, with the support of the leadership, military forces and population of the country. Non-military companies support wars because of their own personal interests in gaining access to materials of the enemy. Being successful in war, they will benefit from the gained resource materials. The media will also promote war because they are rewarded for publishing false or misleading information to the opposing country, and that they do not gain anything from opposing the war.

By far, there are 5 major theories that will be discussed here, namely

• Psychological theories
• Anthropological theories
• Demographic theories
• Rationalist theories
• Economic theories

Psychological theories
This theory argues that war is a conversion of an individual’s grievances into bias and hatred towards other ethnic groups, nations or ideologies. Theorists have found that humans are inherently violent, and to show it, they will vent it on the things that they dislike, thus creating an alter ego. War is known as an innate of human nature, and that is why there will be no possibility in stopping it. Even though so, it does not explain when or how wars occur, and how certain human cultures are completely devoid of war.

Anthropological theories
This theory explains war as an attempt of two societies to destroy or weaken the other party to gain control over their possessions. Their mindset was acquired from their religion, ideology, and nationalism, which promotes their patriotism, and that they see no link between forms of violence. Ashley Montagu is a theorist of this category, seeing the top-down nature of war, where the population is led by a leader to war and not by the wills of themselves. The citizens themselves see the need to fight for their own nation and the good of the people, and that they are the fated people to wage a patriotic fight against the opposition nation and forces.

Demographic theories
It is discussed in this theory, that war is the result of increasing population and limited resources. According to Thomas Robert Malthus, an influential demographer and political economist, populations will continue to increase until they are limited by war, disease or famine. Another example shall be Pope Urban II who led the First Crusade into war to free the Christians in Jerusalem from the Muslims. The day before the First Crusade in 1095, Pope Urban II said:

"For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest that land from a wicked race, and subject it to yourselves."

This, as said before, tells of why population will never cease to grow until the process is hindered by war, famine or disease.

Rationalist theories
The theory which sees both parties in a war as rational, and they intend to gain the best possible outcome for themselves by committing the least, but will not wage war if they are happy with the post -war situation. Though, certain issues which cannot stop the war from happening are issue indivisibility, information asymmetry with incentive to deceive, and the inability to make credible commitments. Issue indivisibility occurs when both sides see no point or no possibility of sharing a certain resource or property between both nations and thus wage war to decide the victor and owner of the item. Besides, information asymmetry with incentive to deceive is when both sides cannot out talk each other and cannot decide on a conclusion, and assuming both sides have a secret weapon in hand, they are not able to put it into words as there is not trust in between, therefore, putting their weapons to fight is the best way to show their skills. This is usually a result of both nations being poor in bargaining and making credible commitments. An example of this theory is the Vietnam War (1865-1975). Even though it is realized that the communist forces will retaliate, the Americans (supported by the South Vietnam community) did not expect the North Vietnam communists to overpower their invasion.

Economic theories
As said by this theory, wars begin with the intention of obtaining new markets, natural resources, and wealth. This theory is most argued by two political spectrums. The left of the political spectrum argues that even though wars serves the interests of the wealthy, the poor are the ones who fight it; whereas the right political spectrum says: the strong has the right to take away what the weak cannot hold by force. Therefore, there is no conclusion between these two political spectrums as they are both correct.