International Relations/The Cause of War

1. Summary

We can detect factors of war. But we can't make a system for predicting where and when war will occur. There are many theories about the cause of war: psychological theories, anthropological theories, sociological theories, information theories, economic theories, marxist theories.



2. What was interested/What did you learn

I was interested in the theories about the cause of war, especially information theories. Information theories argue that all wars are based on lack of information. This theory is predicated on the notion that the outcome of wars is not randomly determined, but fully determined on factors such as doctrine, economies, and power. While purely random events, such as storms or the right person dying at the right time, might have had some effect on history, these only influence a single battle or slightly alter the outcome of a war, but would not mean the difference between victory and defeat.



3. Question

Is there any new theories about the cause of war?