Can War be Eliminated? E-Book

Christopher Coker

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Global Futures
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 130

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Throughout history, war seems to have had an iron grip on humanity. In this short book, internationally renowned philosopher of war, Christopher Coker, challenges the view that war is an idea that we can cash in for an even better one - peace. War, he argues, is central to the human condition; it is part of the evolutionary inheritance which has allowed us to survive and thrive. New technologies and new geopolitical battles may transform the face and purpose of war in the 21st century, but our capacity for war remains undiminished. The inconvenient truth is that we will not see the end of war until it exhausts its own evolutionary possibilities.

Leseprobe

‘Christopher Coker’s new book is a masterpiece of erudite concision in which I learned something new on every page. He is not only Britain’s leading philosopher of warfare, but a prolific historian who puts the competition to shame.’

Michael Burleigh, author of Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World

‘From pre-modern city-state to post-modern cyber-space, Christopher Coker reminds us that war is a natural part of our human condition. In a concise study, but one informed by an erudition drawn from philosophy, literature, history and cultural criticism, the author meditates on the melancholy reality that we are, as a species, fated to endure rather than eliminate war. Both idealists and realists will benefit from reading this small gem of a book from an outstanding scholar of the role of war in the history of ideas.’

Michael Evans, General Sir Francis Hassett Chair of Military Studies, Australian Defence College

‘With searingly elegant prose, Dr. Coker brings a vast array of ideas and event to bear on one of the most pressing issues of this or any other time. A must-read book.’

Steven Metz, Director of Research, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

Can War be Eliminated?

Global Futures

Mohammed Ayoob: Will the Middle East Implode? Jonathan Fenby: Will China Dominate the 21st Century?

Christopher Coker

CAN WAR BE ELIMINATED?

polity

Copyright © Christopher Coker 2014

The right of Christopher Coker to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2014 by Polity Press

Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-7456-8207-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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War: thunder against it.

Flaubert, The Dictionary of Received Ideas

Contents

Prologue

1  Evolution

2  Culture

3  Technology

4  Geopolitics

5  Peace

6  Humanity

Further Reading

Notes

Prologue

It is the summer of 1983 and Major-General Albert Stubblebine III, the US Army’s recently appointed Chief of Intelligence, with no fewer than 16,000 soldiers under his direct command, finds himself confounded by his failure to walk through the wall of his office. One day, the ability to pass through office walls will be a common tool in intelligence gathering, he surmises, and when that day dawns it will surely herald a world without war.1

The story appears in The Men Who Stare at Goats, a book by Jon Ronson, which was later turned into a popular movie with George Clooney in the starring role. But the soldiers trained on the US Army’s Parapsychology Program did not think they were precursors of peace. Large amounts of money were spent on parapsychology, both by the Soviet Union and by the United States, in the latter half of the Cold War in the vain attempt to reboot war for a new age. This is the dynamic of war: every time you think you have invented a technology that cannot be used, soon enough you find it can.