Review Of The Better Angels Of Our Nature By Steven...

INTP 371 - Short Essay Sally Togher | 15 April 2017 | Question 2 —————————- Evaluate and critique the different arguments for the decline in warfare since 1990. In the last decade, discussion of â€Å"the decline of war† has dramatically escalated. This essay evaluates and critiques three major arguments for the decline in warfare since 1990, examining the human nature approach of Steven Pinker, the shorter-term factors proposed by John Mueller and the alternative â€Å"New Wars† theory championed by Mary Kaldor. In combination, these approaches provide a general summary of the major strains of â€Å"declinist† literature and demonstrate the challenges of assessing the changing political violence and armed conflict after the Cold War. In â€Å"The Better†¦show more content†¦John Mueller makes a claim even bolder than a decline in war, arguing that war has ceased, or nearly ceased, to exist. He argues that the general decline in inter-state war lies in the changing attitudes towards war. Mueller contends that up until the early 20th century, war was seen in a positive light, but European attitudes changed â€Å"profoundly† after WWI, and that shift of opinion was â€Å"dramatically reinforced† by WWII. Mueller explains the particular fall in civil wars in the 1990s as a result of improvements in governance and policing in developing countries. Thus these factors in combination explain the recent decline in all wars. Mueller rejects other alternative arguments for the decline of war, including economic interdependence and institutional incentives, on the basis of causality and questionable impact. Critics of his theories point out that the traditional â€Å"war† conception they are ba sed on excludes any non-state warfare with under 1000 deaths, and thus explanations of the recent decline do not account for major instances of political violence such as the Rwandan Genocide. However, Mueller refutes these critiques with the view that such political violence is merely opportunistic thugs who are the ‘residual combatants’. Thus, Mueller’s claim that war has â€Å"ceased to exist† is qualified, particularly in light of political changes after the cold war. Comparatively, Mary Kaldor attempts to address the methodological issues of