Causes and Prevention of War (Seyom Brown)

The objective of Brown's book may be inferred from its title, although as Brown himself suggests, the approach that he takes to explaining the reasons wars happen might be considered unusual. That is, The Causes and Prevention of War is not merely an exercise in analysis of political history or political economy, although the scope of study is limited to international, nation-fighting-nation war. The book is an interdisciplinary study, which Brown takes to mean one that exploits the methods and insights of the full range of the social sciences, as well as biology and physics, in the service, first, of coming up with insights into how wars begin and second, of forecasting possible lines of policy development meant to "reduce the role of violence in world politics." The two parts of the book correspond to these goals of explaining causes and then prevention of international conflict. In other words, The Causes and Prevention of War is descriptive and analytical of the causes of war and either suggestive or prescriptive of ways in which wa

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here intentions of peaceful states are good must beside efforts throughout history to eliminate war altogether. Without what Dr. King called a true revolution of values, in morality, politics, and philosophy, and backed up by an enforcement authority, ideas of disarmament and permanent nonaggression seem just so much utopia. On the other hand, absent meaningful enforcement mechanism, efforts to control war as an instrument of international policy, through comprehensive treaties and conferences have fallen before individual crises. Meanwhile, the destruction of the U.S.-USSR rivalry has actually fostered the potential for smaller wars, complicated by alliances and rivalries, paranoia and aggression, all in a context of competition for the best and latest weapons of war that the have-nations are eager to manufacture and export and that the have-not-nations are eager to acquire. Brown makes a case for "creative conflict-resolution approaches" such as unilateral concessions and "fractionating" conflicts by parsing and focusing on small, negotiated issues so as to avoid wars over big issues. He devotes a separate chapter to arms control strategies, citing the tendency of balance-of-power theories from medieval times through the nucl
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Approximate Word count = 3283
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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