by Peter Ruzzo

Created on: October 09, 2009   Last Updated: October 10, 2009

War is a necessary evil without which peace cannot be maintained. This paradoxical statement presupposes the idea that countries are like living breathing entities with wants, desires, beliefs and of course interests that conflict with other countries.

Princetonian and President of the United States Woodrow Wilson identified in his Fourteen Points a concept which I think is important in understanding international relations. The concept that he brought forward was the idea of self-determination. Self-determination was one of the corner stones to creating a League of Nations that would exist for the purposes of preserving peace.

Nation-states should be allowed to exist peacefully, without aggression from another nation; that preservation of language and culture and the promulgation of economic freedom were important concepts to nation status. Wilson's idea was brilliant in theory but in practice would not stand the test of time because the concept of self-determination is inherently paradoxical. A nation-state's will to thrive and exist will eventually lead to conflict with other nation-states who are doing the same thing.

Leading these nation-states are men. Men are fallible and flawed and fallible and flawed men assume positions of power. Fortunately, not all leaders that have assumed power lead their nations into war. Some are provoked into war and others try to avoid war. Still, war inevitably rears its ugly head when nation states fail to resolve conflicts with diplomacy. Of course the failure of diplomacy leads to war.

The balance of power shifts every couple of centuries and wars engulf regions and ignite hostility for years to come. We saw a major shift in geopolitical power after both wars of the previous century. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved and several nationalities were given nation states after the end of WWI. The United States became a major world power after it helped defeat the Axis powers in World War II.

A tenuous peace existed between the two world superpowers after World War II that signified the Cold War, which ironically was a time of relative peace. This peace was maintained only because a war would have led to horrendous consequences. The victorious Allied powers had to restructure Europe and the Pacific Rim to ensure prosperity and to make sure that fascism and other radical political ideologies did not gain a foothold.

Swift intervention and multi-lateral cooperation was key to this formula. The U.S. Marshall Plan helped

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