The Factors of War

Paper Summary:

This paper demonstrates that war has developed from a primarily socio-cultural phenomenon with limited technological elements to a mostly technological event that is shaping the socio-cultural nature of human existence. The author hypothesizes that the development of the military-industrial complex marked a turning point in human socio-technological development and identifies external influences, including the social, cultural, economic and political factors, that affect war and war techniques. The author states that warfare can be seen as a continuation of the McDonaldization thesis, which suggests that western societies are becoming dominated by the principles of the fast food industry. The paper concludes that, at the beginning of the 21st Century, the corporations dominating the war techniques, high-technologies virtually have eliminated the socio-cultural aspects.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Thesis: War
War: from the Socio-Cultural to the Industrial-Military Complex
Internal Influences: Increased Economic Globalization
Conclusions: The Overall Influences

From the Paper:

"Corporations have realized that instability is bad for business. For example, in "The Silent Takeover", one of Noreen Hertz's central arguments is that corporations are engaging in socially beneficial projects because they realized that socio-economic inequality leads to economic instability which is bad for business. This has lead many international corporations to push nation states. In particular they have pushed them to avoid war."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Caldicott, Dr. Helen(2004), The New Nuclear Danger, The New Press, New York.
• Der Derian, James(2001), Virtuous War, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.
• Domke, William K.(1988), War and the Changing Global System, Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
• Eaton, George E.(2003), "Liberal Democracy and Its Ideological Ideological Underpinnings" in Between Public and Private, George Eaton and Diane Jurkowski (eds), Captus Press, Toronto: 4-53.
• Hertz, Noreen(2003), The Silent Takeover, Harper Business, New York, New York.

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