There are different theories for analysis when we look at the roots of war. In this particular analysis we shall look at a state and a systematic analysis of war to glean a fuller understanding of the roots of war and the multiple sources responsible for it. War, either internal or external, has been with mankind all of its existence. When it comes to war, politics is an extremely important aspect of the state, and all politics equates to war because history has proven the need for society to instill some means of controlling internal and/or external threats in the face of man’s inherent capability for violence. It is one of the primary thoughts behind various social contract theories. We will now examine war from a state analysis and from a systematic analysis perspective.
Where the state is concerned, the state not only makes war but war very often makes the state. If war represents the ultimate chaos and destruction of society, it also represents the zenith of that same society’s ability to unify. If the battlefield symbolizes disorganization and chaos, then the political machinery and state behind it are the apotheosis of organization and order as glorified by the central government controlling the conflict “A central government directs the whole of this vast effort, using extraordinary, and often extralegal, wartime authority to tax, regulate, confiscate, ration, conscript, and other mobilize the resources required to wage the contest” (Porter xiv).
The very nature of a large scale war basically necessitates a ready field for the expansion and empowerment of the central government. The aftermath of war usually creates a new shape for the state, one more often of ideologies and less personal freedoms than before. During the 20th century, wars were not fought for personal liberty and freedom, but rather to increase the role, scope, and power of the central governments waging them. The role of the state is al...