The Response to External Threats of Violence
The formation of a modern state is based on its ability to supply security as a public good to its citizens. Security protects a state’s territorial claims, against external threats, and controls domestic disputes. The ability control the use of violence is what provides the foundation for other public goods: freedom to participate in politics, infrastructure, property rights, and a market place that facilitates trade. While a strong state provides a reasoned system of order, in which citizens have free access to a variety of public goods and the guarantee of security, a state does not for overnight and it is often through a response to external threats of violence that a successful state is formed. …show more content…
It is important to note, however, that violence is not a sure formulation of order within a society. In order for violence to facilitate law and order, it must be channeled toward a specific cause or purpose that is aligned with the best interests of the population. Throughout the history we see many examples of successful state formation in the widespread prevalence of violence, but also find more recent instance of stalled state development in African countries due the international community’s attempt to preserve peace in the region. These examples support the idea that a state’s response to an external threat of violence is one of the many drivers for successful state formation due to its facility …show more content…
The response to an external threat is able to generate unity in a way that no other event can match. In Europe, “‘war canalized the development of states’ sovereignty, tying this to citizen ship and to national identity in such a profound way that any other scenario [of how the national system would be ordered] came to appear little more than fantasy’” (Herbst 48). The creation of national identity has proven to be a “sticky” phenomenon in that once it is exists, the population will continue to feel the same sense of nationalism, even after outside threats of violence are
The formation of a modern state is based on its ability to supply security as a public good to its citizens. Security protects a state’s territorial claims, against external threats, and controls domestic disputes. The ability control the use of violence is what provides the foundation for other public goods: freedom to participate in politics, infrastructure, property rights, and a market place that facilitates trade. While a strong state provides a reasoned system of order, in which citizens have free access to a variety of public goods and the guarantee of security, a state does not for overnight and it is often through a response to external threats of violence that a successful state is formed. …show more content…
It is important to note, however, that violence is not a sure formulation of order within a society. In order for violence to facilitate law and order, it must be channeled toward a specific cause or purpose that is aligned with the best interests of the population. Throughout the history we see many examples of successful state formation in the widespread prevalence of violence, but also find more recent instance of stalled state development in African countries due the international community’s attempt to preserve peace in the region. These examples support the idea that a state’s response to an external threat of violence is one of the many drivers for successful state formation due to its facility …show more content…
The response to an external threat is able to generate unity in a way that no other event can match. In Europe, “‘war canalized the development of states’ sovereignty, tying this to citizen ship and to national identity in such a profound way that any other scenario [of how the national system would be ordered] came to appear little more than fantasy’” (Herbst 48). The creation of national identity has proven to be a “sticky” phenomenon in that once it is exists, the population will continue to feel the same sense of nationalism, even after outside threats of violence are