PSC 1003 Professor Sell Rhett Nuenighoff Midterm 2 28 14 The Power Struggle There have been hundreds of wars fought in the history of the world dating back to the BCE era However these wars all differ They range from being fought over territory religion and leadership just to name a few No one thing causes war There are many theories and ideas about the origin of a war which can be applied to every war since the beginning of time Among the numerous theories there a a few key ideas that have been known to explain the spark of a war These theories include Waltz s three images Gilpin s Theory of hegemonic warfare the bargaining model and the spiral model To explain war Kenneth Waltz breaks war down into three components otherwise known as images man state and the international system If man were to cause war then one needs to question the intention of man What is human nature Is man naturally good or bad Systems like the USSR are based on the view that man is inherently good If man is naturally good then war can t be caused Looking towards the second image Waltz builds his theory around Rousseau s statement that as men live in states so states exist in a world of states guid ing us towards the idea that the state causes war Waltz 6 States are more likely to go to war over differences within their systems or their social economic and political forms However Waltz argues that stable mature democracies don t go to war against each other Therefore he then looks at the international systems There is no world government which means we have a system of anarchy Every state is responsible for their own security Waltz concludes that the so lution to what causes war lies in the system because we live in a system of anarchy and not hier archy He further explains this in his model of war based on a black box filled with billiard balls Each ball can be treated as an individual state looking at the interior politics like institutions economic systems and civil military relationships According to the model if there is a bipolar world where there are two powerful states they will balance each other out For example the Cold War occurred due to the fact that the US and USSR were the only two super powers after WWII On the other hand if the system is multipolar meaning all states are balanced they are more prone to war for instance WWII Additionally if the system is unipolar meaning one state is more powerful the world is unstable This can be observed through the present day United States However Waltz only looks at one factor that has the potential to begin war the power struggle between states This can lead to uncertainty in this theory Robert Gilpin introduces another theory of how wars are caused the theory of Hege monic war Unlike Waltz Gilpin is not interested in anarchy rather the system of hierarchy He developed the theory of Hegemonic warfare meaning the higher power state will alter and change overtime A shift of power in the system causes Hegemonic war The Hegemon the higher power state will benefit the most by spreading their ideas For example during the Cold War the USSR was trying to spread its system of communism through eastern Europe and Asia to gain control of the Pacific Ocean The US on the other hand was trying to spread its ideals of democracy in order to fight the system of communism As smaller states in this case the US learn to spread their ideas overtime they begin to rise eventually gaining the capability to ad vance their society Because of this the Hegemon s capability or the USSR s capability begins to shrink This eventually causes war between the Hegemon and the rising state Most often the rising state becomes the next Hegemon Additionally the answer to how war is caused lies in the question of why war occurs Ac cording to the Bargaining model there are three reasons why states go to war even if it is costly and detrimental to both states States may try to bargain their way out of war but in most cases it fails First states have the incentive to lie about their capabilities For instance it is unknown if Iran has nuclear weapons leaving many countries including the US curious Iran will not deny or confirm if they have these weapons which could lead to war Countries may invade for fear of these weapons Next states capabilities are expected to change overtime meaning one will be come more powerful with its growth This can be seen in the present day situation of the US and the rise of China The US is seen as a super power yet China has been recently rising and gain ing capabilities in their economy and military which may lead to war Lastly the idea that inter nal divisions can lead to mistakes which can then lead to war This caused by possible domestic problems normally a disconnect between the civilians and the government Over all this theory is stating that problems with incomplete information and incentives to lie can contribute to war Finally the idea of a Security Dilemma also known as the Spiral model can be seen to create heightened tensions initially turning into war This refers to a situation where actions of states to increase there security for the safety of their states can lead to other states taking the same measure ending in conflict between the two With an anarchic system states must provide their own security it is a system of self help However if a state was to enhance there security others may feel threatened creating this action reaction dynamic Essentially states feel insecure so they arm themselves which in turn makes their rivals feel insecure They arm themselves as well making other states feel insecure One time that the Security Dilemma benefitted a country was when Switzerland was afraid of being attacked in World War I Instead of arming them selves in defense like most states they decided to take a different approach digging trenches to hide in This showed that they where not going to fight but were a neutral country in the war Overall countries need to be aware that they are mutually dependent meaning they cannot af ford to not pay attention to security actions of other countries However in reacting they can create a circumstance that may leave them worse off than before When looking at what causes war there are many different components to consider The biggest component is that power is the central aspect of the world This can be seen in all the models states above Power transitions and threats of other countries leads to the cause of war This