The Making of War

As with all human phenomena, war has elements which have been constant for centuries. War also has significant elements which are variable, mostly having to do with context, but not entirely. What needs to be repeated at the outset, because it is a central axiom, is that war constitutes a form of violence. Violence, in other words, is the correct category under which to subsume the human activity of war-making. This essay will proceed inductively to illustrate its point. The creation of war has three distinct and notable differences which are physical, economic and symbolic types of viole…