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Understanding war

Why do we fight? Why does the opposing parties act like they do? How can mankind bear to create so much misery among them? Why does the media report the way they do? Get an introduction to peace and conflict. Whether it is today’s situation in Iraq or the anti-Semitism during World War II.

Another bomb goes off in Baghdad. There are over hundred casualties, the hospitals are filled with wounded and relatives cry out to God. The TV-reporter sums up number of dead, comes with a theory of who did it, and predicts what the US will do. A news anchor states why the people who could have done it did it, and argues whether the Americans’ new strategy will be any better than the last. We’ve heard it all before. Numerous questions and answers. Predictions and guesses. Assumptions and rumours. But what can we make out of it?

We need to get behind the news picture to be able to obtain an independent opinion, to understand why the journalists say what they do and to be able to evaluate the situation critically. It is important to see alternative interpretations and solutions. This is Peace and Conflict Studies.

The students studying Peace and Conflict Studies in India learn to analyse war on different levels, from the individual to the global. With this as a background we can better understand how the bombings in Baghdad emerges as a result of people’s biological and social reaction to different situations. On a group level we can see well-known dynamics linked to ethnic, religious and national mobilisation, as well as demonising of the enemy as an existential threat. On a state level we find a state on the verge of collapse, but also how its survival is depending on other states’ own interests. If we look at the degree of decision-processes and decision-makers in war, we get a picture of a world where decisions have to be made under tight deadlines, with incomplete information, with distorted interpretations of the enemies’ intentions, and in consideration of personal power strategies. When we get to the idealistic, social and economic levels the picture gets so complicated it is easy to go back to the media’s stylised tableaux. But we should never return to that. If we do, we will loose the critical outlook that is necessary to avoid becoming a random piece in a bigger game of peace and war.

But can this scrutiny end the bloodshed in Iraq? If that were the case it would have to be combined with theories on conflict resolution and peace building. Half of Culture Studies’ Peace and Conflict course investigates these topics and the lecturers are internationally recognised. In addition there is a workshop about conflict understanding and mediation, where the theories from the reading list can be experienced through role-play, practical assignments and reflection. After this, the news picture will never be the same. It will be a surface that should be broken. So war’s reason can rupture and be broken.