Sam Kuykendall Warfare Research

Throughout history, warfare has been a constant part of human life. The three main causes of war, as highlighted in The Art of War, are man, land, and state. Wars are often caused by human emotions and nationalism, as seen in World War I. Land, or economic strength, also plays a major role in wars, as seen in conflicts like Afghanistan. State differences and alliances, such as Ukraine's allegiance with NATO, can also lead to war, as seen in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Art of War's analysis of these causes remains relevant in modern conflicts, like the Israel-Gaza conflict. Unfortunately, war will likely continue to be a constant throughout our history. Thomas Robb, a philosopher of the American Revolution, said that two things are constant in life, death and taxes. And while unfortunately those two things are a constant part of everyday life, he did forget something else that has been a constant throughout human history. Warfare. Whatever period of history you look at, there is some defining moment in that era where warfare raged across the land and caused many issues for the people living in that time. And it's for the people of the past and the people of the future that we ask today's question. Why is warfare and war so constant throughout our history? And for this, I'd like to break it down into the three key causes of war. The same causes that The Art of War, a book published by a Chinese philosopher in the 15th century highlights. He highlights that the three main causes of war are man, land and state. And I'd like to break all three of these down and analyze some wars in our modern history that were caused by man, land or state. So first, I'd like to examine what man means, what it means of causing an international war. The way that the Chinese philosopher describes man being a cause of war is they highlight that sometimes men or women's emotions get the best of us and we act out and it ends up with consequences that can sometimes lead to war. Christopher Blattman of the Modern War Institute published an article on October 14th of 2023 highlighting that not only does man's emotions cause many issues throughout our society but they also highlight that World War I, the war that was supposedly the war to end all wars was mostly caused by man's emotion. The nationalism that people had for their own nation at the time led to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. And after this assassination, a war involving over 48 countries started ripping across all seven continents minus Antarctica. And the main cause of this war was the overflowing of human emotion and hatred towards each other. Archduke Ferdinand was a politician and people hated him for it but the actual assassin that killed him had no political alliances at the time and instead hated Archduke Ferdinand as a person and when he was given the opportunity to take this anger out, he took it causing one of the most devastating wars in human history. The second area that the art of war highlights that is a cause of war is land. Now in the 15th century, land was very, very important because that is how people lived. Without land, you had no money and without any money, you could not feed your family. So the modern day translation of land from the 15th century is money or economic strength. And we can see this throughout every single war in our modern history where economic strength and money plays a large role. We can first look at the Afghanistan conflict where after we actually started getting involved in the area we started harvesting a lot of natural resources from the area of the Middle East with massive amounts of oil harvesting and other natural resource harvesting in the Middle East. While it was not a cause of the actual war where the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers was the actual cause of the war. The economic influence and power that the Middle East held was a massive driving factor in the war continuing and us continuing to actually fight the fight. And we can see further where the Chinese philosopher that wrote Art of War furthers in the rough English translation that land gives man power and without power, man has to find power. And using land, he can fill this void in his life and it can cause wars. And while all wars are caused by power vacuums in some area, land can fill this power vacuum for people that desperately need it. Because at the end of the day, everyone needs to put food on their table for their kids and to be able to be financially strong to not only support their kids but everyone around them. The last thing that the Art of War defines as a major cause of war is state. Which means in modern English, basically the country that we ally ourselves with. Luckily for us, the United States is currently not in direct conflict. However, the two massive international conflicts that are happening as I give this at 1021 on May 17th, Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Gaza and Palestine are caused by state differences. First, I'd like to look at the Ukrainian conflict itself. The United States Department of Defense published a report on January 1st of 2024 highlighting what actually caused the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They say that throughout this conflict, it was mainly caused by Ukraine's allegiance with NATO. Which means that the state or government of NATO was trying to join another group of nations allied against Russia. And while Russia's actions were not justified in invading an innocent nation, we do have to realize that for states being a main cause of war, what Ukraine did absolutely caused it. Because giving allegiance to Russia's biggest adversary, the United States, gives Russia the full authority to act however they please. And unfortunately for us, it's caused a war that's lasted over two years. And secondly, we can look at Israel and Gaza. With many of the issues between Palestine and Israel have always been religious and state reasons. With not only their economic, but political, social, and economic policies being drastically different on the very same issues, this means that they're always going to argue. And now it's finally overflowed into an actual conflict. Meaning that the actual three causes of war that the art of war highlights are all true. And have been proven time and time again throughout our history. So today, we looked at the question, why is war so constant throughout our history? And for the answer, we look at the book, The Art of War. Published by a Chinese philosopher in the 14th century. Where they highlight that the main three causes of war are man, land, and state. And we can see that throughout in many modern conflicts, this has been proven time and time again. And unfortunately, moving forward into the future, this will not change. Thank you Ms. Dunn. This is a little longer than I wanted it to be, but I got everything in there. Have a good weekend. Thank you.