Essay Sample about War

War is a state of armed conflict between two or more countries or parties inside a single country. This is frequently done for personal benefit, retaliation, defence, deception, and so forth. War, for the most part, is a cultural phenomenon with evolutionary origins for people today. War is an advanced type of conflict in which disputes remain unresolved. Conflicts are mostly caused for gain and by dissatisfaction.

Humans are naturally disposed to waging wars instead of building peace. This is a controversial claim that might sound outlandish but proves true in some cases. For example, when people are predisposed to violence, they will quickly respond with aggression and attack the first person who comes their way. Some people argue that this is because it's human nature for humans not to like feeling threatened and so will do anything to extract themselves from such situations. This desire for self-preservation can lead to unnecessary acts of aggression which could eventually lead to a major war.

Since humans started to form communities, wars have been a part of our society. This has been held through centuries and millennia through the ages. The causes of wars can be many different things but they heavily depend on the type of war it is. Hardly any war would ever start without a cause, but the most common cause would have to be territorial disputes. Another factor in war is oil or natural resources that are coveted by both sides because they give power and money to those who control them; this also results in conflict. War can also support economic gains which often cause conflicts with other countries that may or may not be considered "friendly". However, all these causes of conflicts and wars are eventually humans fighting for personal or territorial gain. Thus, the actual cause of wars is humans.

Wars are grievous, however, the truth is that war leads to warriors and heroes, while peace can lead to boredom and laziness. War builds character by giving us struggles that we have to overcome, or heroism if killed in battle. Peace does not provide these opportunities for character building or triumph over adversity; it only provides an opportunity for complacency and cowardice. It is the same concept as overcoming hardship to become a better person. A generally optimistic individual may turn more pessimistic depending on the circumstances. A generally pessimistic individual, on the other hand, may appear to be more optimistic. Having both accomplishments and trials in your life, whether or not you noticed it, most likely influenced how you acted and shaped your personality during that period. It's human nature for our emotions and personalities to shift based on what's going on in our lives.

Hobbes's Theory supports the claim of humans being disposed to waging wars instead of building peace. It mentions that wars emerge because we are delicate, scared, impressionable, and mentally prickly beings who may become unreasonably enraged by even little slights to our glory. It emphasizes that all the wars that have been going on for ages, the reason behind them is us, humans. It is not primarily because of scarce materials or survival instinct. The primary source of war, according to Hobbes, is disagreement, because we read into it the most inflammatory signs of contempt. In this state of chaos (without any greater authority), of "war with every other man," societies appear to be "few, fierce, short-lived, poor, nasty, and destroyed of all that pleasure and beauty of life, which peace and society are wont to bring with them." Instances of such occurrences abound in failed countries such as Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is for this purpose that man surrenders his liberties to power, the sole guarantor of peace. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher, also stated that "one man cannot begin to behave decently unless he has some assurance that others will not be able to ruin him." What's truly at issue here is the pessimistic belief that human nature is unreasonably violent and competitive. 

Further reading of Leviathan reveals another element of war in respect to human nature, particularly the environment in which humans resides. Hobbes describes the state of nature as follows: “If any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end […] endeavour to destroy, or subdue one another”. While this battle for resources may provide an option to human nature to predicate war, as will be observed, war can only be ascribed to any major factor by the coupling of this factor and another of human nature. It must be proved that the basic necessities for human survival are so important to human nature that competing for these should be included in its core definition. Survival, which is based first and foremost on the securement of these commodities, and then on their protection, is crucial to the cause of wars. A real-life example of this is the war between Russia and Ukraine, the war for a territorial resource. Russia declared war against Ukraine for the land, to seize Ukraine’s city and claim it as Russia’s. Both parties desire the same thing: Ukraine’s land and authority over it, which both countries cannot share together. Now they are enemies at war. Both of them are fighting for basic necessities as Ukraine is fighting for freedom (one of the human rights) and Russia fighting for power (a basic necessity to survive in this competitive context).

Human nature, while not often articulated clearly, is the direct root of all human endeavours, including war. Its broader definition includes the pursuit of those resources most critical to life, and its most distinguishing feature is its blindness to the motives of others. The transmission of these forces to the state or other structural level is complete, directed by a man and in man's benefit, and it is through this transposition that the current society of states and relations evolved.