Question

Chapter 6

1. If war is so terrible, why do so many appear ready to fight over international and internal disagreements? What is the appeal of war to governments? To individuals?

2. How has warfare changed over the centuries? Has human conflict become more or less humane?

3.Who are the major players in the global arms trade? What would be needed to turn this expenditure from weapons of destruction to tools of human progress?

Answer 1

1. If war is so terrible, why do so many appear ready to fight over international and internal disagreements? What is the appeal of war to governments? To individuals?

In olden days, people lived in small groups and they needed this association to protect themselves from the natural dangers. It later became the fight between these groups and slowly the strongest man started gathering more people to his side. More wars were fought for wealth, resources and women. Governments today go to war in order to protect their country from possible threats, do a counter attack on a country or group that initiated the attack etc. Individuals support their governments because they feel that this would benefit them all.

2. How has warfare changed over the centuries? Has human conflict become more or less humane?

Wars were fought in open arenas and it was face to face. The strongest in terms of physical and number of soldiers in the army won wars. Human conflicts have become more inhuman as more number of innocent people die during the war. Wars have taken different shapes today as biological war, atomic war, technological war etc. The enemy is invisible most of the time and one could destroy or bring the government to a standstill from a remote place by hacking into the systems of the government and collapsing the markets.

3. Who are the major players in the global arms trade? What would be needed to turn this expenditure from weapons of destruction to tools of human progress?

Almost all the developed countries are the major players in the global arms trade because of their technological advancement. Most of the time their task is to create confusion and provoke civil wars within a country or between the neighboring countries of the developing and underdeveloped countries thus selling more arms to them. Most of the countries have their large share of the GDP allocated to military. If countries learn to live in peace, they could spend the money they use for military on education, social welfare schemes, creating more jobs etc.