Is Major War Obsolete Analysis

A common theme that can be found between the reading by Carl Kaysen and the one by Michael Mandelbaum, as well as the article “Is Major War Obsolete?” by Rod Lyon, is that major war, that is war “fought by the most powerful members of the international system, drawing on all of their resources and using every weapon at their command,” (Mandelbaum 20) is definitely becoming obsolete. Mandelbaum, Kaysen and Lyon all come up with answers on why this is the case in today’s global society. The most dominant answer between them all is that major war is no longer favourable due to the rise of nuclear weapons. According to Mandelbaum, major wars started to become outdated while the Cold War was still going on. For him, it “lacked a central feature [that the French Revolution, WW1 and WW2 had]: direct battles between and among the belligerent powers” (20 – 21). Wars were seen as a means to achieve state goals but since the development of nuclear weapons, which has proven to be a deterrent for states, …show more content…
Although he is accurate in saying so, since it is still possible for states to go to war with one another, I believe that society’s idea of war has been reshaped because of nuclear weapons and influences by non-state actors. I think that the question is not whether war is obsolete, but rather what does war mean in contemporary society? It clearly is not the “social practice that was once considered normal” (Mandelbaum 35) due to the irrationality of using nuclear weapons against one another. Also, terrorists and other non-state actors are increasingly reshaping what we believe conflicts on the global scale are illustrated as. It is quite possible that in a few decades, war will centrally be defined as these “unconventional conflicts,” hence initiating the discussion on what war means for the world; and what it will mean in the