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Causes of War
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Goes beyond timing of wars |
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This work is in progress, subject to change |
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Visceral causes of crisis wars
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Recognizing the visceral causes |
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Mid-cycle wars are political - top-down - reasoning |
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Crisis wars are visceral, instinctive, unreasoning, emotional |
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Visceral motivations occur once every 70-90 year cycle |
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Signs of visceral hatred |
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Genocide, mass murder, mass rape, rape with bottles |
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Fear that nation or way of life is in danger |
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Sources of visceral fears
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Isolating causes of visceral fears |
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Example: Americans after 9/11 vs London 1943 |
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Example: Causes of American Civil War |
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Visceral fears arise only in generational crisis periods |
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Threats lead to visceral fears |
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Threat of disease (e.g., black plague) |
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Threat of internal insurrection |
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Threat of government violence |
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Perception of threat may be irrational (crisis periods) |
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Applies to large masses of people during crisis periods |
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Results of visceral fears - war
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Provoking visceral fears |
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Applies to large masses of people during crisis periods |
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Surprise terrorist attack |
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Sudden increase in price of food or rent or taxes |
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Sudden loss of job or income |
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Tariff law or oil embargo causing unemployment |
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Note: That's why even non-violent acts can be thought of as acts of war |
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Visceral fear -> Visceral hatred -> War |
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'Enemy' executes hostile surprise - violent or non-violent |
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Feel visceral fear - may be irrational |
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Determine threat causing visceral fear - may be irrational |
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Assign cause or fault to threat as 'enemy' - may be irrational |
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Population develops feelings of fear and fury |
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Triggers "them or us" feelings |
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Market-Dominant Minority Economies
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Yale Professor Amy Chua in World on Fire |
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Example: 1994 Rwanda genocide |
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Tutsis (14% of population) - market-dominant minority |
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Hutu (85% of population) |
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In 1994, Hutus hacked to death 900K Tutsis in 3 months |
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Other examples |
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Chinese are MDM in many countries throughout Southeast Asia |
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Whites are MDM in South Africa |
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Lebanese are MDM in West Africa |
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Jews are MDM in post-Communist Russia |
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Thomas Roberts Malthus
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Essay on Population, published in 1798 |
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Population grows geometrically |
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Food supply grows linearly |
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Therefore population will always outstrip food supply |
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Corrected rates |
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Population grows exponentially |
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Food supply grows exponentially, at a slower rate than population |
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Therefore population will always outstrip food supply |
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This applies both regionally and globally |
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My own estimates |
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Food supply grows at .96% per year, based on USDA wheat yields since 1860 |
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Population grows by 1.29% per year, based on UN estimates |
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Population grows by 3-5% in some countries, based on CIA Fact Book |
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The Malthus Effect
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Nature's methods for reducing population |
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20-40 wars on any day in any year |
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Major method is war, not famine |
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The Malthus Effect - my phrase for how food scarcity leads to crisis war |
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As time goes on, population grows faster than food supply |
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As time goes on, food becomes relatively scarcer |
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As time goes on, price of food goes up |
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Bowl of rice costs 1 hour labor -> 2 hours -> 3 hours |
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Poverty and starvation lead to humiliation and hatred |
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Malthus Effect during non-crisis periods |
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Poverty and starvation lead to looting and low-level violence |
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Low-level violence handled by standard police methods |
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Mid-cycle problems handled with restraint: compromise and containment |
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Malthus Effect during crisis periods |
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Looting and low-level violence provoke visceral fears |
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Looting leads to brinkmanship and increasing demands |
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Reactions involve increased violence and higher visibility |
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Ping-pong hostile surprises lead to war |
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