The purpose of this research is to examine the recent Iraq War between America and Saddam Hussein in terms of Georg Simmel's theory of conflict by using Simmel's basic analysis of conflict. There will then be a discussion as to how it helps explain the events of the Iraq War.
What is important to know about Simmel's view of conflict is that it is a form of social organization. He explains that this is not really a contradiction, even though it may seem like one. One reason it is not a contradiction is that the purpose of conflict can be to reshape the existing social arrangements. Another reason is that conflict "resolves the tension between contrasts" (Simmel, 1908, p. 71). Simmel expands upon that idea:
[C]ontradiction and conflict not only precede this unity but are operative in it at every moment of its existence. Just so, there probably exists no social unit in which convergent and divergent currents among its members are not inseparably interwoven (Simmel, 1908, p. 72).
Conflict, according to Simmel, is a positive social value. That is not because positive = good. Instead, it means that conflict has its own ability to operate in society. Even if it has negative results, it is one way of organizing social arrangements that is just as powerful as harmony in affecting the experience of people. That does not mean that when conflict is over there is automatic social improvement because it seems to have gone away. Instead, it means that conflict is a powerful fact of social organization. It is a part of the "totality" of social experience (p. 76). In fact, he says that "antagonism" is "an element of sociation" (p. 80).
According to Simmel, conflict has a life of its own in shaping social arrangements. He refers to the rules of war as an important example of how conflict organizes social arrangements. Even though war is an extreme conflict, the fact that the warring parties observe rules of war shows that conflict has organ...