Throughout history, humans have found the need to wage wars. Waris characterized by intentional violence on the part of large bodies of individuals trained for that purpose. Some wars are fought internally between rival political factions while others may be fought against external enemies in the name of religion, self-defense or to acquire resources or territory.Warfare refers to the tactics used by the military to fight a war. Over time these tactics have changed, thereby bringing a significant change in the political and social institutions. Though modern warfare is present in every significant periodof military history, it refers generally to the concepts, methods and technologiesthat have come into existence during and after the Second World Warand the Korean War. Largely due to the extensive use of highly advanced information technology, these concepts and methods have developed into more complex forms of the 19th and early-20th century antecedents.
Modern warfare has had significant changes in the political and social institutions. New technologies and the development of nuclear weapons give a lot of authority and power to the developed, western nations. Ever since the U.S. dropped the atomic bombon Japan, people started wondering about nuclear weapons and the risk they pose to the entire globe. It is known that there are enough nuclear weapons in the world today to annihilate all of its inhabitants. Many countries including the worlds super-powers have well developed nuclear weapons and the threat of a nuclear war is feared by many. Western politics claim that these weapons are of necessity so that a nation may defend itself. However, these same nations argue that these tools of modern warfare should not be developed by Third World nations and should be deemed illegal by international law.
These security benefits were not missed by other powerful countries and soon afterward the Soviet Union also built these crucial weapons and this is how the nuclear arms race began. In the following years, the two superpower enemies developed the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. But they managed to refrain from using them even in the brink of war. Ironically, many experts believe that nuclear weapons have helped prevent such hostilities as neither side dared risk starting a dispute that could lead to an annihilating nuclear strike.
The inclusion of civilians and civilian infrastructure as targets in limiting a nations war engaging ability is perhaps the most identifiable social consequence of modern times war. Two distinct theories led to the targeting of civilians. The first theory was that factories would not be able to function properly if enough of a nations civilians were killed. The second theory suggests that if too many civilians were killed then the nation would become so demoralized that at would not wage further war. Although estimates for the total casualties of World War IImay vary, most agree that about 60 million people were killed, including 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians. About half of all the Second World War casualties, some 27 million people were killed in the Soviet Union alone.The largest number of civilian deaths in a single city was 1.2 million citizens which were killed during the Siege of Leningrad that lasted 872 days.
Western powers use political and social reasons to wage war. TheIraq War is an ongoing military campaignwhich began on March 20, 2003, in which Iraq was invadedby a multinational forceled by troops from the United Statesand the United Kingdom. Before the war, the governments of the above named countries claimed that Iraqs alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction(WMD) was a serious threat to their and their coalitionregional allies security. After investigation however, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Groupconcluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear programs in 1991 and although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weaponsfrom before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons which had been the main argument to justify the invasion.
We have seen that todays superpower nations of the west use modern warfare and weaponry to gain political advantage over lesser developed nations. The social repercussions of these political strategies are devastating for countries that are invaded. The fear of a nuclear clash may keep enemies at bay however, it is a real threat to all the inhabitants of the world. As seen by the Iraq example, wars are made for political gain and have massive effects on society.
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