The Norms of Warfare
This post is motivated by a few observations and an idea that might connect them together. Unfortunately, I don't feel equipped to pursue this idea, but if you have any suggestions or contributions, please let me know.
First, the observations. In many instances, alien armies have shown up in an isolated region and dominated it. Many things contribute to this, including technological differences and the differential immunity to disease. Another factor, though, is the ruthlessness of the invaders. As an example, when Cortes conquered Mexico, the Aztecs had several chances to kill him (and his compatriots) in battle. They didn't, though, in part because they would rather capture him. In India, meanwhile, temple construction was used as a proxy for political and military power:
"All, except subsidiary shrines, were in part intended as expressions of royal paramountcy designed to impress subjects, remind vassals, and challenge rivals.
"Hence 'the construction of a temple, Buddhist or Hindu, was an important political act,' indeed 'as much an act of war as it was an act of peace.' It could, though, be misconstrued. As new Islamic challengers ventured across the deserts of Sind and over the Hindu Kush, India's dynasties appeared to be woefully indifferent as they lavished all available resources not on forts and horsemen but on flights of architectural fantasy. In fact they were meeting the new threat by a gloriously defiant assertion of self-belief in their superior sovereignty."
(India: A History, page 179, by John Keay, internal citations ommitted)
So here's the idea. War is (among other things) a way of asserting political control over territory and people. This control yields wealth, in the form of taxes or tribute. Leaders compete for territory and subjects, and naturally sometimes this competition takes the form of war. War is, however, a negative-sum game, meaning that one side always wins less than the other loses. No one wants to play that kind of game unless he's likely to win, but of course you don't always get to choose whether or not to fight.
Imagine, though, that there is some technology that allows you to determine the winner without huge loss of life. Different technologies will vary in terms of cost and accuracy (single combat seems inaccurate but very low-cost; see David and Goliath). These technologies might be adopted as social norms among the various tribes or kingdoms in a region. The idea is that once a clear winner and loser have been identified, further loss of life hurts everyone to no purpose (this was the theme of the letter sent from General Grant to General Lee toward the end of the Civil War). The norm can therefore save lives.
Why adhere to the norm? I'm not sure, but I would guess that departing from it would be seen as a sign of weakness. For instance, if the norm is to capture rather than kill your adversaries, only a desperate leader might not have the resources to guard the captives. He would kill them, but this would be a sure sign of his own weakness, so he simply surrenders. The norm would have to make surrender less awful than defeat, but not by much.
The norm of temple-building might be a decent proxy for wealth and manpower. Thus, rather than engage in wasteful fighting, Indian leaders could achieve the same result by pouring their resources into monumental temples. Of course, this might also be very wasteful, but it wouldn't have the painful and disruptive effects of open warfare.
So then invaders show up who have no use for the local norms. By using the tactics of total war, they sweep through and easily defeat the restrained natives. This demonstrates that the norms, while stable over a certain range of conditions, are not universally stable.
So where are we today? I think we're mostly in a situation where life-saving norms have disappeared. Perhaps things like the Geneva Convention can be seen as an attempt to replace them with law. Anyway, I think all of this would make a great paper or something, but as I said, I have neither the historical knowledge nor the sociological training to write that paper. If I get really foolhardy, maybe I'll try anyway.
[UPDATE: fixed typo]
First, the observations. In many instances, alien armies have shown up in an isolated region and dominated it. Many things contribute to this, including technological differences and the differential immunity to disease. Another factor, though, is the ruthlessness of the invaders. As an example, when Cortes conquered Mexico, the Aztecs had several chances to kill him (and his compatriots) in battle. They didn't, though, in part because they would rather capture him. In India, meanwhile, temple construction was used as a proxy for political and military power:
"All, except subsidiary shrines, were in part intended as expressions of royal paramountcy designed to impress subjects, remind vassals, and challenge rivals.
"Hence 'the construction of a temple, Buddhist or Hindu, was an important political act,' indeed 'as much an act of war as it was an act of peace.' It could, though, be misconstrued. As new Islamic challengers ventured across the deserts of Sind and over the Hindu Kush, India's dynasties appeared to be woefully indifferent as they lavished all available resources not on forts and horsemen but on flights of architectural fantasy. In fact they were meeting the new threat by a gloriously defiant assertion of self-belief in their superior sovereignty."
(India: A History, page 179, by John Keay, internal citations ommitted)
So here's the idea. War is (among other things) a way of asserting political control over territory and people. This control yields wealth, in the form of taxes or tribute. Leaders compete for territory and subjects, and naturally sometimes this competition takes the form of war. War is, however, a negative-sum game, meaning that one side always wins less than the other loses. No one wants to play that kind of game unless he's likely to win, but of course you don't always get to choose whether or not to fight.
Imagine, though, that there is some technology that allows you to determine the winner without huge loss of life. Different technologies will vary in terms of cost and accuracy (single combat seems inaccurate but very low-cost; see David and Goliath). These technologies might be adopted as social norms among the various tribes or kingdoms in a region. The idea is that once a clear winner and loser have been identified, further loss of life hurts everyone to no purpose (this was the theme of the letter sent from General Grant to General Lee toward the end of the Civil War). The norm can therefore save lives.
Why adhere to the norm? I'm not sure, but I would guess that departing from it would be seen as a sign of weakness. For instance, if the norm is to capture rather than kill your adversaries, only a desperate leader might not have the resources to guard the captives. He would kill them, but this would be a sure sign of his own weakness, so he simply surrenders. The norm would have to make surrender less awful than defeat, but not by much.
The norm of temple-building might be a decent proxy for wealth and manpower. Thus, rather than engage in wasteful fighting, Indian leaders could achieve the same result by pouring their resources into monumental temples. Of course, this might also be very wasteful, but it wouldn't have the painful and disruptive effects of open warfare.
So then invaders show up who have no use for the local norms. By using the tactics of total war, they sweep through and easily defeat the restrained natives. This demonstrates that the norms, while stable over a certain range of conditions, are not universally stable.
So where are we today? I think we're mostly in a situation where life-saving norms have disappeared. Perhaps things like the Geneva Convention can be seen as an attempt to replace them with law. Anyway, I think all of this would make a great paper or something, but as I said, I have neither the historical knowledge nor the sociological training to write that paper. If I get really foolhardy, maybe I'll try anyway.
[UPDATE: fixed typo]
posted by James | 10:08 AM
1 Comments:
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