POLITICAL. The permanent possibility of war is the foundation for stable
government; it supplies the basis for general acceptance of political authority. It
has enabled societies to maintain necessary class distinctions, and it has ensured
the subordination of the citizen to the state, by virtue of the residual war powers
inherent in the concept of nationhood. No modern political ruling group has
successfully controlled its constituency after failing to sustain the continuing
credibility of an external threat of war.
SOCIOLOGICAL. War, through the medium of military institutions, has
uniquely served societies, throughout the course of known history, as an
indispensable controller of dangerous social dissidence and destructive
antisocial tendencies. As the most formidable of threats to life itself, and as the
only one susceptible to mitigation by social organization alone, it has played
another equally fundamental role: the war system has provided the machinery
through which the motivational forces governing human behavior have been
translated into binding social allegiance. It has thus ensured the degree of social
cohesion necessary to the viability of nations. No other institution, or groups of
institutions, in modern societies, has successfully served these functions.
ECOLOGICAL. War has been the principal evolutionary device for maintaining
a satisfactory ecological balance between gross human population and supplies
available for its survival. It is unique to the human species.
CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC. War-orientation has determined the basic
standards of value in the creative arts, and has provided the fundamental
motivational source of scientific and technological progress. The concepts that
the arts express values independent of their own forms and that the successful
pursuit of knowledge has intrinsic social value have long been accepted in
modern societies; the development of the arts and sciences during this period
has been corollary to the parallel development of weaponry.
SUBSTITUTES FOR THE FUNCTIONS OF WAR: CRITERIA
The foregoing functions of war are essential to the survival of the social systems
we know today. With two possible exceptions they are also essential to any kind
of stable social organization that might survive in a warless world. Discussion
of the ways and means of transition to such a world are meaningless unless
a)substitute institutions can be devised to fill these functions, or b) it can
reasonably be hypothecated that the loss or partial loss of any one function need
not destroy the viability of future societies.
government; it supplies the basis for general acceptance of political authority. It
has enabled societies to maintain necessary class distinctions, and it has ensured
the subordination of the citizen to the state, by virtue of the residual war powers
inherent in the concept of nationhood. No modern political ruling group has
successfully controlled its constituency after failing to sustain the continuing
credibility of an external threat of war.
SOCIOLOGICAL. War, through the medium of military institutions, has
uniquely served societies, throughout the course of known history, as an
indispensable controller of dangerous social dissidence and destructive
antisocial tendencies. As the most formidable of threats to life itself, and as the
only one susceptible to mitigation by social organization alone, it has played
another equally fundamental role: the war system has provided the machinery
through which the motivational forces governing human behavior have been
translated into binding social allegiance. It has thus ensured the degree of social
cohesion necessary to the viability of nations. No other institution, or groups of
institutions, in modern societies, has successfully served these functions.
ECOLOGICAL. War has been the principal evolutionary device for maintaining
a satisfactory ecological balance between gross human population and supplies
available for its survival. It is unique to the human species.
CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC. War-orientation has determined the basic
standards of value in the creative arts, and has provided the fundamental
motivational source of scientific and technological progress. The concepts that
the arts express values independent of their own forms and that the successful
pursuit of knowledge has intrinsic social value have long been accepted in
modern societies; the development of the arts and sciences during this period
has been corollary to the parallel development of weaponry.
SUBSTITUTES FOR THE FUNCTIONS OF WAR: CRITERIA
The foregoing functions of war are essential to the survival of the social systems
we know today. With two possible exceptions they are also essential to any kind
of stable social organization that might survive in a warless world. Discussion
of the ways and means of transition to such a world are meaningless unless
a)substitute institutions can be devised to fill these functions, or b) it can
reasonably be hypothecated that the loss or partial loss of any one function need
not destroy the viability of future societies.
