The Human Species’ Obsession With Self-Destruction
In A World That Stands Today On Its Tiptoes, Anticipating With Great Anxiety The Escalation Of International Conflict Hotspots, And Fascinated—At The Same Time—By Modern Technologies Of Slaughter, The Old, Urgent Question Returns To Impose Itself On The Table Of Human Discussion: Why Do Humans Make War? This Question Does Not Seem To Be An Intellectual Luxury In An Era When Cyber Wars Intertwine With Conventional Artillery, And Armies Move For Justifications That Trace Back Sometimes To Historical Myths And At Other Times To Complex Geopolitical Calculations. It Is The Dilemma Of Dilemmas, The Riddle That Philosophers, Scientists, Poets, And Historians Have Tried To Deconstruct Throughout The Ages Without Reaching A Healing Antidote That Prevents The Human Species From Repeatedly Sliding Toward The Abyss.
In The Midst Of This Turbulent Scene Comes The Book By The Prominent British Historian Richard Overy, Recently Published Under A Decisive And Direct Title: “Why War?” To Offer An Ambitious And Majestic Attempt To Reread The Intellectual Maps That Have Tried To Explain This Organized Madness. And Overy, For Those Who Do Not Know Him, Is No Stranger To The Corridors Of Human Destruction; He Is One Of The Most Prominent Global Historians Who Dedicated Decades Of Academic Research To Studying World War II, The Characteristics Of Totalitarian Dictatorial Regimes, And The Rise Of Nazism And Stalinism. However, In This New Book, He Casts Aside The Cloak Of The Traditional Historian Trapped Within The Diplomatic Archive Documents Of A Specific Century, And Storms Into A Wider Space Extending For Tens Of Thousands Of Years, Utilizing The Tools Of Both The Humanities And The Natural Sciences Alike.
The Primary Value From Which Overy Sets Out In This Work Does Not Lie In Providing A New Historical Narrative Of Famous Battles Or Analyzing The Genius Of Military Leaders, But Rather Lies In Trying To Understand The “Infrastructure” Of Collective Violence. He Questions The Human Body, The Subconscious Mind, Tribal Culture, And The Surrounding Environment, Reaching All The Way To Systems Of Beliefs And The Struggle For Power, To Formulate In The End A Comprehensive Critical Guide Deconstructing How War Transformed From Just A Primitive Tool For Survival Into A Deeply Rooted Social, Political, And Cultural Institution That The Contemporary World Is Unable To Escape From.
The Shadows Of Historical Correspondence: Einstein And Freud In The Trap Of Confusion
Overy Begins His Epistemological Journey By Returning To A Turning Historical Moment That Encapsulates The Confusion Of The Modern Mind. In 1932, Under The Auspices Of The International Institute Of Intellectual Cooperation Of The League Of Nations, A Famous Correspondence Took Place Between Two Of The Intellectual Giants Of The Twentieth Century: The Physicist Albert Einstein, And The Founder Of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. Einstein, Driven By A Humanistic Anti-War Stance And By Deep Concern Over The Omens Of A New European Conflict, Had Addressed A Direct Question To Freud: “Is There Any Way Of Delivering Mankind From The Menace Of War?” Einstein Thought That The Man Who Spent His Life Exploring The Depths Of The Human Soul Possessed The Keys Of Understanding Capable Of Curbing This Self-Destruction.
But The Answer That Came From Freud Was Disappointing, And Even Drowned In Its Bleakness. Freud Argued That Violence Is Not Incidental To Man, But Is Rather An Inherent Characteristic That Marks The Entire Animal Kingdoms, Including The Human Race. He Saw That The Propensity Toward Fighting And Destruction Stems From An Instinctive Drive Rooted Deep Within Every Living Being, Which He Termed The “Death Drive,” A Destructive Psychological Energy That Cannot Be Eliminated, But Can At Best Be Directed Or Modified.
Overy Takes This Correspondence, Which Does Not Harbor Any Optimism, As A Starting Point To Assert That The Answer To The Question Of War Is Still, Nearly A Century After That Debate, Torn, Frustrating, And Evasive To the Utmost Degree. He Points Out With Journalistic Smartness And Historical Judgment That The Real Dilemma May Lie In The Formulation Of The Question Itself; For Looking At The Long History Filled With Organized Collective Conflicts, The More Logical And Urgent Question Might Be: “Why Does War Not Happen Always?” Instead Of “Why Does It Happen?”.
Breaking The Myth Of The “Peaceful Primitive”: What Does Archaeology Say?
For Many Decades, A Romantic Narrative Dominated Anthropology And Archaeology Defending The Idea Of The “Primitive Peace” Of Man. This Theory, Which Was Adopted By Major Researchers Such As Bronislaw Malinowski And Margaret Mead, Held That Early Human Societies That Lived Before The Emergence Of The State Were Peaceful By Nature, And That Violence Did Not Exceed Local Brawls Or Non-Lethal Showmanship Rituals, And That War In Its Brutal Form Is A Modern Invention Linked To The Emergence Of States, Properties, And Complex Bureaucratic Organizations. Malinowski Saw Modern War As A “Nihilistic Deviation” That Had Nothing To Do With The Pure Nature Of Primitive Man.
However, Richard Overy, Driven By Modern Archaeological And Anthropological Discoveries, Completely Demolishes This Intellectual Romanticism In The First Chapters Of His Book. The Author Explains That The Idea Of The “Peaceful Primitive” No Longer Stands Before The Flood Of Evidence Emerging From The Ground. Forensic Inquiries Of Skeletons Dating Back To The Neolithic Age And Before Reveal A Terrifying Pattern Of Organized, Lethal Collective Violence.
Overy Reviews Horrific Examples Confirming The Antiquity Of Human Collective Crime; At The “Crow Creek” Site In South Dakota In North America, A Mass Grave Was Found Containing The Remains Of 415 Skeletons Dating Back To The Mid-Fourteenth Century AD. Meticulous Scientific Analyses Showed That 89% Of These Victims Had Been Scalped, And A Large Part Of Them Carried Traces Of Stone Axe Blows On The Skulls, Reflecting A Comprehensive Massacre Of Extermination To Which The Group Was Subjected Centuries Before The Arrival Of The White Man With His Lethal Weapons.
Nor Is The Matter Limited To The American Continent; In The Heart Of Europe, Specifically In The Rhine Valley (The Talheim Site) And Near Vienna (The Asparn Site), Archaeologists Found Mass Graves Of Human Remains Belonging To Early Stone Age Cultures. The Bodies Were Thrown Into Defensive Ditches, And The Bones Bore Clear Traces Of Stone Arrows Embedded In The Vertebrae And Skulls Smashed By Cutting Axes, Proving That Collective Massacres Were Part Of The Tools Of Human Interaction Since The Dawn Of History.
These Data Lead Overy To Adopt A Broad Operational Definition Of War, Not Limiting It To Regular Armies And Large Battles, But Rather Seeing War In Every “Collective, Intentional, And Lethal Violence Occurring Between Distinct Human Groups,” Whether It Takes The Form Of Surprise Raids, Ambushes, Tribal Skirmishes, Or Massacres Of Liquidation.
The Book’s Methodological Map: The Duality Of Inevitable Drives And Conscious Choices
In Order For Overy To Provide A Coherent Analysis Without Getting Lost In The Details Of Thousands Of Wars Fought By Humanity, He Divides His Book Methodologically Into Two Main Sections Representing Two Major Intellectual Currents In Explaining Violence:
The First Section: Explanations Relying On Natural And Cultural Forces (Biological And Environmental Determinism): It Investigates How Man Falls Prey To The Mechanisms Of Evolution, Unconscious Psychological Pressures, Or Severe Environmental And Ecological Determinants That Push Him Forcefully Toward Conflict As A Strategy For Survival And Adaptation.
The Second Section: Explanations Relying On Conscious Perception (Teleological Motives): It Looks At War As A Conscious Choice And A Culture Manufactured By Man Himself To Achieve Specific, Measurable, And Changeable Goals Over Time. Overy Distills These Motives Into Four Major Axes: Resources, Belief, Power, And Security.
Overy Assures That These Two Paths Are Not Entirely Separate In Practical Reality, But Rather Intertwine In Complex Ways. For The Human Being Who Is Driven By His Genes Or His Environment Justifies His Wars With Religious Or Nationalist Ideologies, And Modern States Fought Complex Strategic Wars For Security or Resources Cannot Activate These Wars Without Summoning The Psychology Of Mobilization And Primitive Tribal Incitement Lurking In The Depths Of Human Consciousness.
Arraignment Of Biological Determinism: Do Armies Inherit Their Genes From The Jungle?
When Politicians Fail To Explain Their Catastrophes, They Tend Mostly To Cast The Blame On Human Nature, Considering That War Is An Inevitable Fate Driven By Instincts We Do Not Have Control Over. Richard Overy Dedicates A Broad Space Of The Second Chapter To Try This Proposition Adopted By The Pioneers Of Sociobiology And Evolutionary Psychology. The Proponents Of This Current Argue That Man, In The End, Is Nothing But An Evolved Mammal, Carrying In His DNA A Heavy Legacy Of Violence That Was Necessary For Survival In Ancient Eras. These Rely On Famous Behavioral Studies Conducted On Primates Genetically Close To Us, Such As Deep-Forest Chimpanzees, Where The Scientist Jane Goodall Documented In The 1970s What Became Known As The “Gombe Chimpanzee War,” In Which Two Groups Of Apes Launched Organized And Lethal Raids To Annihilate Each Other With The Goal Of Controlling Territory And Females.
But Overy Rejects This Direct And Simplistic Projection Of Animal Behavior On Human Complexity. He Explains That Biological Comparison Is A Scientific And Historical Fallacy; For Man Possesses Also In The Genes Of His Mammalian Kinship The “Bonobo” Species, Which Are Primates Very Close To The Chimpanzee But Live In Societies Based On Cooperation, Complete Peace, And Resolving Conflicts Via Social Interaction, Not Killing. More Importantly, In Overy’s View, Is That Animal Violence Remains An Instinctive, Immediate, And Individual Or Limited Quasi-Collective Violence, While Human War Is An Institutional Act, Requiring Long Planning, Funding, Weapon Development, Bureaucratic Organization, And Division Of Labor. Genes May Explain Anger Or Immediate Defensive Reaction Upon Exposure To Danger, But They Are Completely Incapable Of Explaining How A General Sits In An Air-Conditioned Room To Plan A Military Attack To Be Executed Six Months Later In Another Continent. War Then, Is Not An Inevitable Biological Secretion, But Is Rather A Complex Cultural And Organizational Construction That Transcends The Boundaries Of Animal Instinct.
Psychology Laboratories: How Does The Good Neighbor Turn Into A Professional Killer?
Overy Moves After That From The Space Of Biology And Genes To The Corridors Of The Human Psyche, Questioning The Manner In Which Political Regimes Succeed In Transforming Peaceful Individuals, Who Practice Their Daily Lives With Kindness, Into Mass Killing Machines In Times Of War. Here, The Author Summons The Major Achievements Of Experimental Psychology In The Twentieth Century, Particularly Stanley Milgram’s Famous Two Experiments On “Obedience To Authority,” And The Stanford Prison Experiment Led By Philip Zimbardo. These Laboratory Experiments Showed A Terrifying And Confusing Reality For Moral Consciousness; Which Is That The Human Being Possesses An Enormous Vulnerability To Abandon His Individual Moral Compass As Soon As He Is Integrated Into An Organized Collective Context, Or Upon Receiving Orders From An Authority He Views As Legitimate.
Overy Analyzes This Psychological Transformation Through The Concept Of “Dehumanizing The Other,” Which Is The Most Important Psychological Tactic Followed By War Propaganda In All Eras. In Order For A Human Being To Kill Another Human Being Without Falling Victim To A Guilt Complex Or Severe Psychological Trauma, This Enemy Must First Be Depicted In The Image Of “Rats,” “Plagues,” Or A “Barbaric Existential Threat” Threading The Survival Of The Group. Through This Cognitive Distortion, The Media And Political Machine Succeeds In Awakening The Tribal Psychology Lurking In The Subconscious, Where The World Is Divided Sharply Into The Absolute “We” In Its Goodness, And The Absolute “They” In Its Evil. The Individual Ego Dissolves Inside The Collective Ego, And The Sacrificing Of The Other Transforms Into A Sacred Duty To Protect The Tribe Or The Nation, Which Explains How Ordinary Citizens, Who Were Good Fathers And Music Lovers, Participated In The Atrocities Of The Holocaust Or The Massacres Of Rwanda Without Blinking An Eye.
The Trap Of The Collective Mind And The Strategy Of Escaping Forward
In This Psychological Context, Overy Sees That War Feeds On A Type Of Distorted Rationality Or “Organized Madness.” The Military And Political Leaders Who Take The Decision To Ignite Conflicts Are Not Necessarily Psychopaths Or Madmen In The Medical Sense, But Are Rather In Most Cases Individuals Behaving According To A Strict And Closed Logic Imposed Upon Them By Their Position In Power And Their Fear Of Losing Status. The Author Speaks About What He Calls “The Trap Of The Leaders’ Collective Mind,” Where Misleading Intelligence Reports And The Desire To Please The Ruler Conceal Naked Facts, Creating An Environment Of Cognitive Arrogance That Blinds Decision-Makers From The Consequences Of Their Actions.
And When War Begins And Matters Do Not Proceed According To The Set Plans, The Psychology Of Leaders And Societies Enters Into A New Phase Of Destructive Obstinacy Known As The “Sunk Cost Fallacy.” Retreating And One’s Admission Of Error Becomes Tantamount To Political Suicide And An Admission That The Blood Of Victims Went In Vain, Pushing Regimes To Escape Forward, Escalate The Intensity Of Violence, And Pump More Resources And Lives Into The Furnace Of A Losing Battle, Hoping To Achieve An Illusory Victory That Justifies Previous Sacrifices. And Thus, The Decision That Began As Conscious Strategic Calculations Turns Into An Existential Psychological Vortex In Which The State Loses Control Over The Dynamic Of War, So That War Becomes The One Leading Society Instead Of Society Leading It.
Summary Of The Intellectual Confrontation: Nature Is Flexible And Culture Is The Incubator
Richard Overy Concludes By Demolishing The Idea That Humans Are Biologically Programmed For Self-Destruction. Human Nature, In Its Essence, Is Characterized By Enormous Flexibility And High Capacity For Adaptation; It Contains The Seeds Of Destructive Violence And The Seeds Of Altruistic Cooperation Simultaneously. The Real Question Is Not Whether We Possess Aggressive Instincts, But Rather How Culture And Political Institutions Employ Or Restrain These Instincts.
War, According To This Critical Perspective, Is Not A Genetic Disease Born With Us, But Is Rather A Cultural And Social Program We Invented To Meet Specific Needs, And Then Mop-Up And Consecrated Across History Until It Seemed To Us That It Is Part Of The Laws Of Nature. And By This Epistemological Demolition Of Biological And Psychological Determinisms, Overy Paves The Way For Transitioning To The Second Part Of His Book, Where He Will Abandon The Examination Of Blind Instincts To Devote Himself To Dissecting Conscious Teleological Motives, Reviewing How The Struggle For Land, Resources, And Water Transformed Into The Primary Core Engine For Trains Of Death Throughout The Ages.
The Illusion Of Communal Land: When Geography Turned Into An Iron Cage
After Richard Overy Finishes Demolishing Biological And Psychological Determinisms, He Moves In This Part Of His Critical Reading To Dissecting The Material And Most Obvious Engine In The History Of Human Conflicts; Namely The Desperate Struggle Over Resources And Land. The Author Dispels Here The Common Idea That Saw Land Anciently As A Wide Communal Space Roomy Enough For Everyone, Affirming That Geography Was Always, And Since The Dawn Of History, Tantamount To A Tight Iron Cage Governing The Choices Of Human Groups And Deciding Their Destinies. For Land Is Not Merely A Neutral Earthy Space, But Is The Primary Repository For The Means Of Survival; From Water, Pasture, And Commercial Corridors, To Wealth Hidden In Its Depths, Which Makes Controlling It A Matter Of Life Or Death For Any Society.
Overy Explains That The Decisive Historical Transition From The Lifestyle Of Hunting And Gathering To The Pattern Of Agriculture And Settlement In The Neolithic Age, Was Tantamount To The Major Turning Point That Institutionalized War For Land. For As Soon As Human Groups Invested Their Effort And Time In Reclaiming A Piece Of Land, Building Irrigation Channels, And Fencing Fields, The Idea Of Property And Borders Was Born, And With It Was Born The Urgent Need To Defend This Existential Investment Against Neighboring Pastoral Or Nomadic Groups Whom Scarcity And Famines Might Drive To Invade. Geography Then, Was Never Merely A Backstage Theater On Which Battles Are Fought, But Was The Prize, The Motive, And The Essential Reason In Formulating Strategies Of Attack And Defense.
Resource Scarcity And The Dynamic Of Survival: Demolishing Malthus And Grounding Overy
In Exhibiting His Analysis Of How Scarcity Ignites The Fuse Of Wars, Overy Discusses The Famous Thesis of The British Economist Thomas Malthus, Who Argued That Wars, Plagues, And Famines Are Inevitable Natural Means To Re-Establish Balance Between Population Growth Increasing According To A Geometric Progression, And Food Production Growing According To A Slow Arithmetic Progression. Despite The Attractiveness And Simplicity Of This Malthusian Explanation, Overy Presents A More Profound And Synthesized Vision; For He Sees That The Scarcity Leading To War Is Not Always An Absolute Natural Scarcity Imposed By Nature, But Is In Many Cases A “Manufactured Scarcity” Or A Relative Scarcity Resulting From Misdistribution Of Resources, Political Greed, Or The Desire To Secure Strategic Stocks For The Future At The Expense Of Others.
The Author Strikes Living Examples From Ancient And Modern History Revealing How The Sense Of Fear Of Future Scarcity Is A Driver Far Stronger Than Actual Present Scarcity. The Roman Empire Was Not Suffering A Lethal Famine When It Decided To Expand Into North Africa And Egypt, But Was Searching To Secure Permanent “Granaries” To Ensure The Stability Of Rome And Prevent Any Future Social Disturbances. And In The Modern Era, This Dynamic Materialized Terrifyingly In The Nazi Concept Of “Living Space” (Lebensraum), Where Hitler Justified His Bloody Tectonic Plans In Eastern Europe And Russia By The German People’s Strict Need For Agricultural Spaces And Energy Resources Guaranteeing Its Survival And Dominance In Coming Centuries, Which Proves That The Obsession Of Securing Resources Is Capable Of Transforming Political Ideologies Into Comprehensive Programs Of Geographical Annihilation.
From Wheat Fields To Oil Wells: The Evolution Of Commodities And Changing Maps Of Blood
Overy Traces How The Nature Of Disputed Resources Evolved With The Evolution Of Human Civilization And Technological Leaps, Without The Conflictual Essence Itself Changing. For If Ancient And Medieval Wars Centered Primary Around Fertile Agricultural Lands, Fresh Water Sources, Pastures, And Silk Or Spice Caravan Routes, The Industrial Revolution Has Brought A Radical Overturn In The List Of Commodities For Which Blood Flows. Strategic Interest Shifted Suddenly Toward Coal Mines, Iron, And Rubber, Reaching All The Way To The Black, Enchanting, And Disturbing Liquid: Oil.
Overy Analyzes How Energy Became The Motor Nerve Of Modern Wars; For Massive Logistical Armies, Planes, Tanks, And Fleets Cannot Move Without Fuel, Creating A Strange Vicious Circle: Wars Are Fought For Controlling Oil, And Oil Is Consumed For Fighting Wars. The Book Reviews How Calculations of Oil And Vital Minerals Were The Hidden Engine Behind The Japanese Attack On Pearl Harbor And Expansion In Southeast Asia, Just As It Was An Essential Motive For Allied And Axis Plans In The Middle East And North Africa During World War II. And Even In Our Contemporary World, Overy Sees That Conflicts Did Not Rid Themselves Of This Material Legacy; Rather They Are Preparing To Enter New Phases Of Conflict Over Rare Minerals Used In High Technology, Or Over Control Of Fresh Water Sources Threatened By Drought Due To Climate Changes.
Resources As A Pretext: The Moral Coverage For Naked Interests
The Most Important Result Concluded By Richard Overy In His Deconstruction Of The Resources File Is That States And Empires Rarely Declare Their Desire For Looting And Plundering In An Open And Direct Manner. Instead, Naked Material Interests Are Always Wrapped In Ornate Moral, Religious, Or Civilizational Masks To Ensure Mobilizing The Masses And Their Acceptance Of Sacrifice. The Spanish Conquest Of Latin America, Which Was Driven By A Frenzied Obsession With Gold And Silver To Rescue The Bankrupt Spanish Treasury, Was Presented To The World As A Sacred Mission To Spread Christianity And Save The Souls of The “Barbaric” Indigenous Inhabitants.
And So Did The European Colonial Powers In The Nineteenth Century When They Partitioned The African Continent And Looted Its Rubber, Copper, And Phosphates Under The Slogan Of “The White Man’s Burden” And The Mission Of Civilizing Backward Peoples. This Repeated Cognitive Manipulation Across History Confirms, According To Overy’s Reading, That Resources Remain The Hidden Dynamo Feeding The War Machine With Fuel, While Ideologies And Creeds Undertook The Manufacture Of The Moral Legitimacy Necessary To Operate This Machine Without A Sense Of Guilt, Which Is The Complex and Exciting Link Opening Wide The Door Before Us To Transition From The World of Tangible Matter To The Space Of Absolute Ideas And Creeds.
When The Idea Becomes A Weapon: The Power Of Metaphysics Confronting Rational Calculations
When We Turn To Human History, We Find That The Most Ferocious And Most Cruel Wars Were Not Those Fought For Wheat Fields Or Oil Wells, But Those Whose Spark Was Ignited By Abstract Ideas And Dogmatic Certainty. Richard Overy Dedicates A Pivotal Chapter Of His Book To Deconstructing This Phenomenon, Warning Against Reducing War To Its Material Dimensions Alone. For Man, Unlike Animals, Is A Symbol-Making Being Living In A World Of Meanings; He Is Ready To Sacrifice His Life And The Lives Of Others Not Only Defending His Body, But Defending A Concept, A Belief, Or A Cosmic Vision He Sees As Absolute Truth. Overy Sees That Creed, Whether It Was Metaphysical Religious Or Positivist Secular, Possesses A Unique Ability To Shatter Individual Inhibitions of Violence And Transform Conflict From A Political Confrontation That Can Be Settled By Diplomacy Into An Existential Epic Ending Only With The Annihilation Of One Of The Parties.
The Danger Of Dogmatic War Lies In That It Cancels The Material Logic Of Profit And Loss; For The Soldier Driven By Absolute Faith Does Not Care About The Economic Or Human Cost Of War, Because The Prize He Seeks Is Not Of This World, Or Because The Utopia He Preaches Merits In His Eyes Sacrificing An Entire Generation. Here, Metaphysics Transforms Into A Massive Motor Force, And Ideas Become Tools of Slaughter No Less Destructive Than Bombs, Where They Grant Warriors A Sense of Moral Purity And Divine Or Historical Elevation While Practicing The Ugliest Kinds Of Cruelty Against Their Enemies, Who Are Classified In This Case As Apostates, Infidels, Or Enemies Of The People And Historical Progress.
Religious Wars And The Legacy Of Cleansing: When God Speaks Through Gun Barrels
Overy Reviews The History Of Religious Wars In East And West, Stopping At The Crusades And European Religious Wars In The Seventeenth Century As Two Blatant Models Of How Societies Were Destroyed In The Name Of Divine Right. The Author Explains That Religion In Itself May Contain Texts Of Peace And Tolerance, But The Political Institutionalization of Religion And The Alliance of Custodians With Emperors And Kings Transforms Individual Faith Into An Exclusionary Mobilization Ideology. In The European Thirty Years’ War, For Example, Theological Disputes Between Catholics And Protestants Turned Into A Human Holocaust Devouring A Third Of Germany’s Population, Not Due To The Desire For Geographical Expansion Alone, But Because Each Party Saw In The Other An Incarnation Of The Devil On Earth, And Consequently Its Annihilation Became A Religious Duty To Cleanse The World From Defilement.
The Prominent Trait Of Religious Wars, As Overy Analyzes It, Is The Absence Of The Concept Of A “Legitimate Enemy” With Whom Negotiations Can Be Held. In Traditional Wars, The Enemy Is A Foe Possessing Interests That Can Be Bartered With Land Or Money; Whereas In The War Of Creeds, The Enemy Is An Absolute Evil That Must Be Uprooted Or Forced Into Total Submission And Conversion From His Belief. This Exclusionary Shoolness Inevitably Leads To Practices Of Ethnic and Religious Cleansing, Where Killing Is Not Restricted To Combatants In Battlefields, But Extends To Include Women, Children, And The Elderly, Destroying The Human Society Carrying The Foe’s Thought, And Guaranteeing The Non-Resurgence Of This “Heresy” Once More From The Ashes.
Modern Secular Ideologies: Sacred Alternatives In A Scientific Garb
With The Decline of Traditional Religion’s Authority In The Age Of Enlightenment and The Rise of The Modern Nation-State, Many Philosophers Thought That Humanity Would Lean Toward Peace Thanks To The Rationality Of Science And Law. But Richard Overy Dispels This Illusion With The Boldness of A Historian Who Witnessed The Catastrophes Of The Twentieth Century; Revealing That The Modern Era Did Not Get Rid Of Dogmatic Wars, But Rather “Secularized The Sacred.” Major Totalitarian Ideologies, Like Chauvinistic Nationalism, Nazism, And Stalinism, Replaced Ancient Religions, And Donned The Cloak Of Science And History To Justify Atrocities Surpassing What The Medieval Era Witnessed. “The Nation,” “The Pure Race,” Or “The Proletariat And The Communist Utopia” Transformed Into New Gods To Whom Human Sacrifices Were Offered By The Millions.
Overy Analyzes Nazi Ideology Not As An Incidental Historical Anomaly, But As A Terrifying Zenith For Turning The False Idea Into An Institutionalized Annihilation Program; Where Nazism Merged Nationalist Myths With Distorted Social Darwinism To Manufacture A Creed Seeing In War An Inevitable Means To Ensure The Supremacy Of The Strongest Race. In Contrast, Stalinism Moved Millions Of Humans Under The Slogan Of Historical Inevitability And Class Struggle, Justifying The Liquidation Of Millions Of “Kulaks” And Anti-Revolutionaries As Necessary Measures To Arrive At The Promised Communist Paradise. These Regimes, According To The Author’s Reading, Adopted Earthly Salvific Creeds, And Despite Their Claim Of Rationality And Scientificity, They Were Managed With A Religious Inquisitorial Mindset No Different In Its Psychological Essence From The Inquisition Courts In The Middle Ages.
The Cold War And Beyond: The Conflict Of Grand Narratives And Armed Democracy
Overy Does Not Fail In This Context To Explain How The Cold War Between The Western And Eastern Camps Was Colored By A Purely Dogmatic Character; For It Was Not Merely A Geographical Competition Between Washington And Moscow, But Was A War Between Two Wholly Different Visions Of The World, Man, Economics, And Freedom. Each Side Saw Itself As A Carrier Of The Torch of Human Guidance, And In The Other A Destructive Threat To Civilization. This Intellectual Polarization Made The Conflict Zero-Sum, And Justified Bloody Military Interventions in Vietnam, Korea, And Afghanistan, Where Every Small Patch of Land Was Viewed As A Domino Piece Whose Fall Might Lead To The Collapse Of The Major Dogmatic System.
Even After The Fall Of The Berlin Wall And The Declaration By Some Of “The End of History” And The Victory Of Liberalism, Overy Sees That Creed Did Not Leave The Stage Of Destruction. New Creeds Emerged And Ancient Ones Renewed; The Theses Of “The Clash Of Civilizations” Arose, And The Concept Of “Spreading Democracy And Human Rights” Transformed In Some Instances Into An Offensive Ideology Justifying Preemptive Wars, Invading States, And Toppling Regimes By Armed Force, Proving That The Human Mind Possesses A Capacity That Does Not Run Dry For Innovating Sublime Intellectual Pretexts To Ignite Fires. Ideas Remain Then, In The Final Summation Of Overy’s Book, The Cognitive Mold Melting Instincts And Material Interests, To Bring Out From Them In The End That Organized Monster We Call War, Which Feeds On Man’s Eternal Desire To Impose His Certainty On Others By Force.
Thucydides’ Trap And The Security Dilemma: When Fear Turns Into A Preemptive Attack
In This Closing Chapter, Richard Overy Abandons Observing Internal Motives and Intellectual Backgrounds, To Devote Himself To Dissecting The Structural And Political Environment Creating War; Meaning Thereby Power Structures And The Distribution of Force In The International System. The Author Departs From A Historical Fact Formulated By The Greek Philosopher Thucydides In His Analysis Of The Peloponnesian War, Summarized In That What Makes War Inevitable Is The Rise of A Certain Power And The Fear This Rise Excites In The Existing Dominant Powers. Overy Sees That This Eternal “Trap” Is Not Just A Historical Coincidence, But Is A Direct Product Of What International Relations Scientists Call “The Security Dilemma”; Where International Anarchy And The Absence of A Central Authority Protecting Everyone Drives Every State Toward Continuous Seeking To Maximize Its Military Power To Protect Itself.
But The Tragedy Lies In That The Purely Defensive Measures Taken By State (A) For Securing, Are Interpreted Inevitably By Neighboring State (B) As A Direct Offensive Threat. This Mutual Misgiving Creates A Frenzied Arms Race And A Vortex Of Suspicion And Tension, Ending Mostly With The Decision To Ignite A Preemptive War; Not Out Of A Desire For Expansion Or Material Looting, But Out Of Pure Fear And The Desire To Strike The Foe Before He Becomes Too Strong To Be Defeated. Overy Explains Brilliantly That The Fear Of Losing Status Or Exposure To Aggression Is A Driver For Wars No Less Ferocious Than Imperial Ambition, Making The Pursuit Of Security A Perfect Method To Destroy Security Itself.
The Pursuit of Absolute Power: The Psychology of Dominance Among Great Powers
Overy Is Not Satisfied With Analyzing Structural Fear, But Dives Into The Psychology Of Power Itself And How It Becomes An End In Itself Transcending The Logic Of Need And Security. For Great Powers Across History, Upon Their Material Superiority, Develop A Type Of “Dominance Narcissism” Or The Desire To Shape The World According To Their Own Image And Narrow Interests. War Transforms In This Case Into A Tool To Consolidate Status, Impose Rules, And Punish Rebels Against The Existing International Order. The Book Reviews How Empires Do Not Fall Usually Due To Sudden External Attacks, But Due To “Imperial Overstretch,” Where The Arrogance of Power And The Belief In Absolute Capability Drives Dominant States To Fight Multiple Wars In Simultaneous Times To Preserve Their Prestige, Exhausting Their Resources And Hastening Their End.
In This Context, Overy Shows That The International System Does Not Go Through Random Absurd States of War, But Rather Major Wars Are Often Turning Historical Stations To Rearrange The Balances Of Power and Formulate New International Agreements (Like The Peace of Westphalia, The Congress of Vienna, Or The Balances of Post-World War II). War Then, According To This Anatomical Perspective, Is The Violent Scalpel Used By Geopolitics To Reshape Maps And Distribute Leadership Seats In The International Club, A Brutal But Stationary Mechanism To Produce A New Order Born From The Womb of Destroying The Old Order.
Prospects Of Peace And The Future Of Conflict: Can The Vicious Circle Be Broken?
In The Final Section Of This Masterpiece, Richard Overy Poses The Hardest Existential Question: Is Humanity Condemned To Eternal Captivity Inside This Vicious Circle Of Destruction? Despite The Bleakness Of The Historical Scene He Reviewed, The Author Rejects Surrendering To Absolute Despair. Overy Sees That The Institutional And Legal Progress Achieved By Humanity In The Twentieth And Twenty-First Century, Through The Emergence Of The United Nations, Developing International Law, And Deepening Mutual Economic Reliance, Has Contributed Indeed In Making Traditional War Between Great Powers More Costly And Less Attractive, Were It Not For The Nightmare of Nuclear Deterrence Imposing A “Terrifying Peace” Based On The Idea Of Mutually Assured Destruction.
Nonetheless, Overy Warns That The Seeds Of Conflict Do Not Die, But Rather Change Their Outer Crust; The Future Might Not Witness Million-Man Armies Confronting In Open Fields, But Silent Cyber Wars, Proxy Conflicts In Gray Zones of Influence, And Conflicts Driven By Climate Collapses And Suffocating Environmental Pressures. Peace, In Overy’s View, Is Not A Stable Natural Condition Arising Spontaneously, But Is A Fragile Artificial Construction Requiring A Continuous Intellectual, Political, And Institutional Effort To Maintain It, And Any Laxity In Servicing These Cultural And Legal Inhibitions Will Return The Ghost Lurking In The Human Machine To Practicing Its Eternal Hobby of Collective Killing.
Summary Of The Intellectual Epic: War As A Choice And A Culture, Not A Fate
We Arrive In The End At The Final Outflow Of Richard Overy’s Comprehensive Thesis; War In Its Essence And Total Affair Is A “Cultural and Institutional Choice, Not An Inevitable Biological Or Geographical Fate.” We Have Traced Across These Five Installments How Instincts, Resources, Ideas, And Power Structures Cooperate To Produce The Catastrophe, But The Decisive Word Remains Always For Human Will And Social Organization. Humans Invented War As A Tool To Resolve Their Disputes And Secure Their Interests, And Manufactured For It Rituals, Myths, And Justifying Ideologies Until It Seemed As If It Is A Natural Law Like Gravity.
The Great Value Of The Book “Why War?” Lies In This Bold Critical Deconstruction; For As Soon As We Realize That War Is A Cultural And Historical Construction Made By Our Hands, We Restore Immediately The Capacity and Moral Responsibility To Deconstruct This Construction And Replace It With Mechanisms More Human And Rational. The Human Train Of Death May Continue Journeying Due To Historical Momentum And Political Greed, But Alert Human Consciousness, Which Exposes Ideological Lies and Material Pretexts For Wars, Remains The Final Brake And The Only Hope To Save Humanity From Its Self-Destruction Lurking Behind The Bends Of History.
