The Changing Definition of Warfare

In the study of sociology, poverty is perhaps the cause of many conflicts and bloodsheds, wars, revolution were mostly related to the poverty of the people. As the world advances, people started to look at how to combat poverty in a serious tone. International organizations such as Red Cross set up to help disaster struck places as well as down to the lower levels we can see local governments such as in Singapore, institutions such as Chinese Development Assistance Council.¹ However poverty’s weapon on mankind is now not wars, but through epidemics. Yet when it comes to disputes between nations, people could not put down their differences to resolve their problems.

The most recent cases of epidemics are that of the Bird Flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). In both cases we have seen a combined effort for mankind to tackle and eliminate the source and containing the disease. Affected countries with bird flu, took steps to collaborate with one another to exchange knowledge, such as the Programme between Singapore and Indonesia.² The video Professor Amir shown us, narrated how the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with the identity for SARS via rallying the assistance of various scientists all over the world to come up with a combined effort. Such recent efforts in combating epidemics showed that globalization, which in fact enables the spread of information and vast extensive communication networks, becomes the weapon to strike back at the epidemic. The speed at which SARS was contained was done virtually in weeks, compared to what it is in the past; the Black Death lasted for three years.³ In this case mankind today possibly has all the resources to counter any threats by an epidemic.

What sparkled off such epidemics such as SARS was due to the unsanitary condition in which livestock and humans lived in. living side by side with livestock, and the inability of the authorities to deal with them due to economical reasons, provided a chance for the SARS virus to develop into an epidemic. In other words, poverty was the indirect cause of modern epidemics.

Ironically, faced with such a great enemy that will take lives in thousands, mankind could cooperate and deal with the disease holistically, however when it comes to conflicts between man, things drags on for years without any solution. The most recent, yet seemed to be never ending was US’s war on terrorism. This war has been raging for 7 years, yet it doesn’t seemed to be stopping, although things have quieted down a bit but we can still hear the word “terrorism” more frequently than what it is prior the twin towers fell. Differences between the terrorists and counter-terrorists, unlike combating against an epidemic, could not be resolved. However unlike an epidemic, which requires time and effort to find a cure, the reasons for warfare was laid down clearly, yet mankind could not reach an agreement.

If there is a World Health Organization, why there isn’t a similar organization where it works the same to combat any possible spark of war? Today we can see that poverty no longer is a cause of warfare and conflicts, as it is but the reason why people become poorer today. Warfare thus becomes more difficult to solve when reasons behind them are complicated by politics and not poverty.

Citations

1. About Us. Chinese Development Assistance Council. (http://www.cdac.org.sg/eng/about_us/about_us.htm)
2. AVA’s Collaboration Programme for Bird Flu Control in Kepri. Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore. (http://www.crisis.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/0EE9A6DD-6ADF-40D5-A489-33926422E464/0/CollaborationProg.pdf)
3. History – Middle Ages – Black Death. British Broadcast. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml)