… the third reason why we study war and conflict: so that we might have less of it. It should be little surprise that, more than most other areas of history, the study of war is replete with veterans of conflict (if I had to guess very roughly, I’d say about half or so of academic military historians seem to have military experience? perhaps a little bit less?). In speaking, arguing and writing with them I find the common refrain that, as people who experienced war, they do not study it because they like war. Rather military historians study conflict in the same way that doctors study disease; no one assumes that doctors like diseases, quite the opposite. Though I have not experienced combat, I share this view. By understanding the costs of conflict, we can learn to try and avoid it (especially as modern technology drives the cost of conflicts higher and higher than the potential benefits). By understanding the causes of conflict, we can try to ameliorate them. And by understanding conflict itself, we can effort to keep the necessary wars as short and confined as possible, empowering our decision-makers (civilian and military) with the tools they need to find the peace that is always the goal of war.
Bret Devereaux, “Collections: Why Military History?”, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, 2020-11-13.
I’m not sure about this. Wars occur when a group has a perceived interest that it believes is worth fighting, killing, and dying to achieve. There will always be such interests, so there will always be wars. War breaking out implies that all rule-governed ways of achieving the interest at issue have been exhausted. Wars end when one of the parties has been defeated.
Comment by MBlanc46 — October 30, 2023 @ 12:28
Dr. Devereaux is pretty even-handed on historical topics, but I’m not sure he’d be comfortable reading some of the stuff I post, never mind what Sev posts over at FQ … this is where his innate liberal orientation shows through. It’s more a pious hope (in my opinion) than a realistic prospect.
Comment by Nicholas — October 30, 2023 @ 13:22