The Liberalist Perspectives on War - Essay Example

A realist believes that the world is and has always been guided and influenced by the military machinery and countries that are in constant conflict. To them, war is the end result of the confrontational nature of societies. A governmental system ruled by a realist leader is a system in which governments make decisions that are not based on the best interest of their citizens, but instead, the interest of the state is the top priority. Since the realist/neorealist focus is on actions that benefit the state, battles and wars are activities that are justified in order to accomplish the desired strategic goals. Other scholars believe that society functions in a different manner in which war-prone tendencies are not the norm. These scholars are called liberalist.

The type of war that has been virtually eliminated is wars between two civilized countries. Developed countries now realize that the world is interconnected in many aspects such as economical systems, biodiversity, natural resources, and technological integration. In these nations, internal and external conflicts are solved utilizing alternative resolution techniques which do not involve violence or a declaration of war to deal with a problem between different parties. An example of ways developed nations resolved conflicts is Europe’s intervention with Iran. The European Community (EC) has been utilizing diplomacy as their main strategy to negotiate with Iran to solve the global nuclear controversy concerning the surrender of this nation’s nuclear program. Heady Bull is another liberal scholar that opposes the view of realists that countries are war-prone and in constant conflict and battle. Mr. Bull believes that the world is interconnected and the decisions made by nations are implemented taking into consideration the overall best interest of society, thus military resource allocation does not occur if the action is detrimental to the economic well-being of society. Acts of war are not acceptable and it can be argued that the integration among nation created a common global territory in which actions against an ally is unacceptable since its impact will hurt all economies around the world. There are international laws and treaties in place to prevent and deal with different types of issues, thus war is not an option that civilized nations need to utilize to negotiate a resolution to conflicts. The civilized world has learned from its destructive past that acts of war cause many serious consequences such as a massive increase in social and economic inequality, disastrous global damage, increased deprivation among the poorest nations while at the same time it benefits protected rich industries.

Government themselves are the key stakeholders which do not wish to lose economic resources due to pointless conflicts that can be resolved by other means. The liberalist perspective emphasizes that war is an undesirable event that is not aligned with the globalization movement. The nation depends on each other more than ever before and damage to one part of this integrated system hurts the collective well-being of planet earth.