Thursday, July 7, 2011

Week 2 Blog Prompt

In your opinion, how has war evolved from from the past to present? Please use examples to justify your opinions.

I feel there are three areas:

1.Warring groups
2.Purpose
3.Communication

Firstly, in the past, war was carried out on a large scale. War was only started by people who had heavy resources and power, like the large countries like Britain, Germany and France during WWI. A little down the road, terrorists with fighter jets crashed into 911. However, as seen from the recent Middle Eastern Revolutions even youths are going against their leader. War has become more of getting your thoughts across than using force to defeat somebody.

Secondly, in the past, wars were started over extreme anger or hatred. They were usually started by leaders. Serbia was blamed for the death of Austria's duke. Hitler had an aversion for jews. The al-qaeda did not like America. Dr Sun Yat Sen's revolution was born out of the extreme disappointment he had in the Qing government. They were corrupted. But, war now is less driven by emotions. When people see a need, they take on various forms of battleground; social media, television and news media, to tell the government, or the leader that he needs to step down. It is less violent, as violence does not solve problems, and people in the war use more intellectual means to gain support of the people.
Lastly, communication. Technology has advanced such that it is easier to rally support of the people. The common citizens can rally together. This poses a bigger threat to the government than weapons. Also, more global attention is received, causing the government to at with extreme caution.

2 comments:

  1. Can you give more explanation and examples of communication. I disagree tat in the past, war is only large scale. There are many between-states war and certain war that looks like bbug scael, ut is actually small scale. The North Korea war only involved Korea, minority of China and US. It is not considered large scale. Maybe you are talking about te duration of war.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the purpose of war is still mainly to tell the other party to back off and to warn them that you are not to be bullied. Yes, it has become more peaceful, but the internet is where all the wars are going to. Yup, it is a war of words.

    War is not carried out on any scale. War on terrorism can neither be considered big or small as we do not know the extent America is going to to eliminate them, or whether the terrorists are a minor or major issue at the moment.

    However, I do agree with your 3rd point. Technology has been advancing over the years, and the internet has become a powerful tool in rallying support without causing an uprising. The anonymity on the internet also enables people to have the freedom of speech. Thus, people can just express their thoughts online, instead of making a lot of noise like staging an uprising to get the government's attention. Well... except in the case of the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete