Frequency of war
Does anyone have any data on how often an individual country goes to war?
I'm aware that the sensationalist news overplays negative events and breeds a disproportionate sense of conflict or discord; such as the claims about the Trump election potentially leading to secessions or even civil war.
If someone has any good historical data, that shows any patterns in regards to how often wars actually occur and how people can make rational predictions, as opposed to fearmongering of sensationalist predictions, I would appreciate it.
I'm aware that the sensationalist news overplays negative events and breeds a disproportionate sense of conflict or discord; such as the claims about the Trump election potentially leading to secessions or even civil war.
If someone has any good historical data, that shows any patterns in regards to how often wars actually occur and how people can make rational predictions, as opposed to fearmongering of sensationalist predictions, I would appreciate it.
Comments (7)
Iraq 2, I remember Tony Blair saying, "we have a dossier showing Iraq can launch an attack in 45 minutes" as his justification for war and we went to war on this basis. We all thought that was a terrible threat, until it turned out the dossier was written for the Iraq 1 war, and was produced by a student at university. Such is the madness.
War is cold, calculated and will not be undertaken unless there is a land mass gain, or a power gain (or its negative, elimination of threat to existing power).
Thanks.
Is your question merely a way of indicting the media as sensationalists?
That can be done without the "how much war" element...especially in a capitalistic society. The media wants to sell newspapers and attract viewers. Sensationalism does that job much better than ho-hum.
Fair enough, assuming you aren't stating that war is always "ongoing" even when no "official" war has been declared or made known (e.x. the 90s Bosnia conflict, "cyberwarfare", etc).
How often would you say that a war or conflict considered big or significant enough to be considered a "major" war on our historical time occurs?
(e.x. the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the US Civil War, WWI, WWII, First Gulf War, Second Gulf War, etc etc).
But some of the wars of less expanse have killed LOTS of people...and the people killed (or displaced) are unlikely to make such a distinction. The Russian, French, and Spanish Civil Wars were pretty bad...and exacted huge tolls. The war in Syria, wars between Irish and Irish or Irish and English, the Korean War, the War in Afghanistan, the Boer War, The Zulu Wars...and such.
Our need to kill one another is not endless, by any means...but it is far from minor.
And then there is the question how you define a war. If a country sends a 30-man medical team to a joint-operation, does that mean that the country is in war? Or does the enemy have to bomb the country and there be martial law and universal conscription?