by Michelle Kasdano

Created on: August 17, 2008

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.

Mao Zedong

War is often referred to as a "strange game" where the only winning move is not to play. However, in spite of that, there have been traces and evidence of warring ever since man's existence, one that had altered its faces, causes, localities and methods to fit the timeframes. However, its fatal consequences, brutality, losses and the fact that less than half of the waged wars are usually won by the war-declaring power have led many to classify it as irrational. Although war is irrational in so many of its aspects, if we are to study its manifestations in the three individual, socio-political and especially the international realms, we will come to the realization that there might actually be some rationality to the motives of war which is finally culminated in the realists' anarchical theory of war for the sake of security and survival.

To begin with, it would be relevant to clarify what the difference is between "rationality" and "irrationality", and on what bases it could be said that war is "irrational". Primarily, most of the pacifists who adopt an anti-war stance, claiming it is irrational, base their opinion on the atrocities and levels of destruction and misfortunes that warfare creates. However this view fits more under the "unjust-war" notion - whereby so many more are sacrificed in war than might have been sacrificed in the case of abstaining- and should not be confused with the "irrationality" of war. However, putting aside the number of casualties of war, many still would think war is irrational, such as free trade supporting liberals who believe that war is "wicked but mostly irrational for the commercial order". Others, such as Norman Angell believe that war does bring short term commercial and political gains, however it is irrational in that it contains the seeds of further conflict in the long run! To the Social Democratic wing of the labor movement in Britain, war was viewed as irrational, since it was the working class that took part in something that the bosses decide and benefit from!

Most importantly however would be the Rationalist and Liberal schools of International Relations who claim that war is irrational, ought to be deterred, and is basically the product of irrational dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. Moreover, another great basis for the idea of war defying reason is that of "miscalculations & misperceptions"

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