Iraq War and Saddam Hussein

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 soci

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al situation seems to be very relevant to this whole matter: But where this fundamental intention to get along under all circumstances is lacking, the consciousness of antagonism, sensitized as this consciousness is by similarity in other respects, will sharpen the antagonism itself (Simmel, 1908, p. 91). In the case of the Iraq war, the US fundamental intention was to not get along with Iraq under any circumstances. That brings up the third global society created out of the conflict of the Iraq War: the UN as a whole and the nations such as France, Germany, China, and Russia that opposed the coalition and the war. The US failed to convince these countries that they should be a part of the coalition. Thus antagonism against the US became an element of sociation for this group. It also did not benefit from Turkey's help for the northern part of the invasion. Instead, these countries came into diplomatic conflict with the US. That does not mean they were in favor of Iraq. Instead, it means that they were in conflict with the US idea of conflict with Iraq. Simmel says that "even the slightest antagonism" between people who have a lot in common "has a relative significance quite other than that between strangers" (p. 91). In other w

Category: Government - I