Perpetual war
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Perpetual war is a war that has no clear ending conditions. It also describes a situation of endless tension that seems likely to escalate at any moment, similar to the cold war.
Causes may also include continuing border or territorial disputes.
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In past history
Examples of seemingly interminable wars were the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), Eighty Years' War (1568-1648), the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Crusades (a series of nine related episodes over a long period 1095-1291), and the Northern Crusades (beginning 1193 and ongoing through the 16th century).
In recent history
The Cold War, lasting almost 50 years, is an example of such a war, although largely fought by the major powers through a large number of small "proxy wars", where the major powers provided aid to various local factions engaged in so-called "wars of national liberation". When the major powers became directly involved, as the U.S. in the war in Vietnam, or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the results were generally a disaster for the major power. Anonther example of protracted conflict were the Indochina Wars, wherein Vietnamese forces fought from 1947 until 1979 against a variety of external foes (including Japan, France, the United States, Cambodia, and China) as well against themselves.
The dispute over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, and over various Himalayan regions between China and India, ongoing since 1947 in the former case and 1962 in the latter, have led to the formation of line of control and the Line of Actual Control respectively. Along these theaters the armed forces of the involved countries stand in continuous preparedness on such battlegrounds as the Siachen glacier. Major flare-ups from time to time have resulted in the Indo-Pakistani Wars and the Sino-Indian War.
In current events
The War on Terrorism has been suggested to become a state of perpetual war, as terrorism is an idea, not a physical target to be fought.
The Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes against nations with certain technological and military capacities that 'may threaten' the United States may imply a perpetual war, as these capacities proliferate into the hands of greater numbers of less friendly nations, and a greater number of non–state and anti–state (but not anarchistic) radical groups, and become cheaper to exploit in a threatening way. President Bush said in August 2004 that he believes the "War on Terror" is "winnable," implying that he plans to wage what may be a very long war until it's over. To some extent this is a definitional problem - calling something a war does not make it a war. War in the conventional sense implies that there are battles between combatants, that there is a definitive termination of hostilities, as in the Cold War or the war in Lebanon. But an armistice is impossible or meaningless in the politician's use of the term as in a War on Drugs (Reagan), or a War on Poverty (Johnson), or a War on Cancer (Nixon), and now a War on Terrorism (Bush).
In socieconomics and politics
Some analysts, such as Noam Chomsky, posit that a state of perpetual war is an aid to (and is promoted by) the powerful members of dominant political and economic classes, helping maintain their positions of economic and political superiority.
In the media
Economic class dominance of politics becomes progressively easier in a modern democratic republic such as the United States due to the continuing development of interlocking relationships between those who benefit directly from war and the large and powerful companies that indirectly benefit and shape the presentation of the effects and consequences of war.
In literature
The novel 1984 by George Orwell was written (in 1948) from the (fictional) viewpoint of a citizen of one of three world-dominating superstates. These nations are in a state of perpetual war with each other. The state of war is used by each of the states to justify the control of their populations using Stalinist or other methods.
See also
Sources
- Gore Vidal: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. Nation Books, 2002. ISBN 156025405X